Asia Cup 2024 archery: Deepika Kumari wins gold on return as India finish Baghdad meet with 14 medals
Indian recurve archer Deepika Kumari was competing in her first international event since becoming a mother in 2022. Get the full list of India’s medal winners.
Archery
Three-time Olympian Deepika Kumari marked a triumphant return to the international stage, winning the gold medal in the women’s individual recurve category at the Asia Cup 2024 archery stage-1 tournament in Baghdad, Iraq on Sunday.
India finished the Baghdad meet with 14 medals – nine gold, four silver and one bronze.
Competing in her first international competition since the Paris Archery World Cup in June 2022, Deepika defeated Simranjeet Kaur 6-2 in an all-Indian final to win the individual recurve title.
Deepika, who became a mother in December 2022, returned to action with a gold medal at the National Games in Goa last year and topped the national selection trials in Kolkata last month to make it back to the Indian setup.
Meanwhile, Dhiraj Bommadevara trumped senior compatriot and Olympian Tarundeep Rai 7-3 to win the men’s recurve archery title.
India swept the top podiums in all the individual events, clinching top positions in both the men’s and women’s compound events.
Parneet Kaur beat Iran’s Fatemeh Hemmati 138-135 for the women’s gold medal match while Prathamesh Jawkar beat team-mate Kushal Dalal 146-144 for the men’s title.
The Indian women’s recurve team comprising Simranjeet Kaur, Deepika Kumari and Bhajan Kaur defeated Uzbekistan 5-4 via shootout in a closely-fought final to clinch gold.
The trio of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Pravin Ramesh Jadhav and Tarundeep Rai, meanwhile, had a far more comfortable outing in the men’s recurve team final, ousting Bangladesh 6-2.
Dhiraj and Simranjeet also teamed up to win the mixed team recurve gold, blanking the Bangladeshi team of Diya Siddique and Md Sagor Islam 6-0 in the final.
Earlier on Saturday, Indian archers claimed four medals at the Baghdad meet with the men’s and mixed compound teams bagging top podium finishes and the women’s team finishing with silver.
Aditi Swami took the bronze in the individual women’s compound event, beating team-mate Priya Gurjar in the third-place playoff match.
The Asia Cup Baghdad archery meet features both recurve and compound archery events and concluded on Sunday.
Asia Cup 2024 archery: Indian medal winners
- Prathamesh Jawkar, Priyansh and Kushal Dalal - gold medal (men’s compound team)
- Prathamesh Jawkar - gold medal (men’s compound individual)
- Kushal Dalal - silver medal (men’s compound team)
- Aditi Swami, Priya Gurjar and Parneet Kaur - silver medal (women’s compound team)
- Parneet Kaur - gold medal (women’s compound individual)
- Aditi Swami - bronze medal (women’s compound individual)
- Prathamesh Jawkar and Aditi Swami - gold medal (compound mixed team)
- Dhiraj Bommadevara, Pravin Ramesh Jadhav and Tarundeep Rai - gold medal (men’s recurve team)
- Dhiraj Bommadevara - gold medal (men’s recurve individual)
- Tarundeep Rai - silver medal (men’s recurve individual)
- Simranjeet Kaur, Deepika Kumari and Bhajan Kaur - gold medal (women’s recurve team)
- Deepika Kumari - gold medal (women’s recurve individual)
- Simranjeet Kaur - silver medal (women’s recurve individual)
- Simranjeet Kaur and Dhiraj Bommadevara - gold medal (recurve mixed team)