Indian archer Komalika Bari moves into final of Youth World Championships

Wroclaw: Promising Indian archer Komalika Bari, who is the reigning under-18 recurve world champion, remained in hunt for a successive title at under-21 level by sailing into the final of the Youth World Championships here on Thursday. India also secured a second medal when Sakshi Chaudhary entered the compound junior women’s final, while her teammate Rishabh Yadav kept himself in line for a bronze. Returning to junior age group two years after she became cadet world champion at Madrid, Komalika dropped two sets to overcome Casey Kaufhold of the USA 6-4 (28-27, 25-28, 28-26, 25-30, 29-25). The sixth seed Komalika will take on fourth seed Elia Canales of Spain on Sunday in her bid to become junior world champion and emulate the feat of Deepika Kumari.

NEWS. Bari graduates to under-21 world #archery championship final in Wroclaw
https://t.co/qD1UEHuzpo pic.twitter.com/QWnW2PkaZV

— World Archery (@worldarchery) August 12, 2021

World number one Deepika is the only Indian to have won successive cadet and junior titles (in Ogden 2009 and Legnica 2011). “I will try to get the gold medal to have a complete collection. Gold and gold. I feel ready to fight for it in the final,” the Jamshedpur-born Tata Archery Academy archer said. The 19-year-old, who is also part of the Indian senior team, described her five-setter win over the Tokyo Olympics-returned American as a tough one. “It was a very close match and she is really strong. She’s just came from the Olympics in Tokyo. She is a great archer.” Having got two byes, the sixth-seeded Komalika defeated Japanese Juri Shibuya 6-4, Kazakh Ziyodakhon Abdusattarova 6-0 and Mao Watanbe of Japan 6-5 (8-7) in the shoot-off to make the last-four. In the compound junior women’s individual section, eighth seed Sakshi pipped American Anna Scarbrough 144-142 to set up a final clash against Amanda Mlinaric of Croatia. Palton Hasda (Merida 2006) was the last Indian to win a junior world title in the compound section. Anna, who got a first round bye, defeated Kazakh Aizhan Seidakhmetova 142-141, Iranian Bita Asheghzadeh Oskouei 147-142 and Mexican Dafne Quintero 147-145, to enter the final. Rishabh, who lost to Robin Jaamta of Estonia 147-146 in the compound junior men’s individual semi-final, will take on Sebastian Garcia of Mexico in the bronze play-off.