Archery World Cup: India's Atanu Das, Deepika Kumari storm into individual recurve semi-finals

Guatemala City: India’s top archery couple Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari battled windy conditions to storm into their respective semi-finals in the recurve section of the Archery World Cup stage 1 on Thursday. In the recurve mixed team event, Atanu and Ankita Bhakat suffer defeat in the semi-final against Mexico. Defying severe winds at the Sports Complex Los Arcos, Das defeated his Candian rival Eric Peters 6-4 to set up a semi-final clash with Angel Alvarado of Mexico. Qualified straight to the round of 32 after finishing second in the rankings round, Das defeated Oscar Ticas of El Salvador 6-4 first up before ousting his teammate Pravin Jadhav by an identical scoreline to make the last-four. Deepika, who qualified as number three seed, downed German archer Michelle Kroppen as she will next face Alejandra Valencia of Mexico in the last four. Deepika had earlier defeated Kelsey Lard of the USA 6-0 in round two and overcame London Olympics silver medalist Aida Roman of Mexico in the shootoff 6-5 (10-9). However there was heartbreak in store for Ankita Bhakat as the second seed Indian lost to Alejanra 6-2 in the last eight.