Archery World Cup Final 2024: Deepika Kumari beats two Olympic medallists to win recurve silver medal
Deepika Kumari defeated Yang Xiaolei 6-0 in the quarter-finals before edging out Alejandra Valencia 6-4. The Indian archer was beaten 6-0 by Li Jiaman in the final.
Archery
India’s Deepika Kumari won the silver medal in the women’s recurve event at the Archery World Cup Final 2024 in Tlaxcala, Mexico on Sunday.
The 30-year-old Indian archer, who also competed at the Paris 2024 Olympics, lost to the People’s Republic of China’s Li Jiaman 6-0 in the final. Li Jiaman was part of the Chinese women’s archery team that won the silver medal at Paris 2024.
The Archery World Cup Final featured eight archers in each of the individual men’s and women’s competitions in both recurve and compound archery.
The competitions started in the quarter-finals, where Deepika Kumari defeated Li Jiaman’s Paris 2024 teammate Yang Xiaolei 6-0 in straight sets.
Deepika, a four-time Olympian, followed it up with a 6-4 victory over Mexico’s Alejandra Valencia, a mixed team bronze medallist from Tokyo 2020 and women’s team bronze medallist at Paris 2024.
This was Deepika Kumari’s sixth medal in the Archery World Cup Finals but her first since becoming a mother in 2022. The Indian archer finished runners-up on five occasions - 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2024. She won the bronze medal in 2018.
At the Paris 2024 Olympics, Deepika Kumari participated in two events - the women's individual and women's team with Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat. Her run ended in the quarter-finals in both events.
Deepika Kumari had qualified for the Archery World Cup Final based on her 2024 World Cup series rankings. She had also won an individual silver at the Shanghai World Cup.
A total of five Indian archers, including Asian Games champion Jyothi Surekha Vennam, competed at the Archery World Cup Final.
Jyothi lost to Estonia’s Meeri-Marita Paas with a 147-145 scoreline in the women’s compound event’s quarter-finals.
In the men's compound, Prathamesh Fuge narrowly missed out on the medal after losing to former world champion Mike Schloesser of the Netherlands 150-146 in the bronze medal match.
Paris 2024 Olympian Dhiraj Bommadevara and Priyansh were knocked in the quarter-finals of the men’s recurve and compound archery, respectively.