Indoor Archery World Cup Stage 2: Deepika Kumari clinches bronze in women's recurve event

Bangkok: India returned with a solitary bronze medal by Deepika Kumari at the Indoor Archery World Cup Stage 2 that concluded on Sunday. Deepika, seeded third, defeated 13th seeded Sayana Tsyrempilova of Russia 7-3 in the women’s recurve bronze play-off to bring some smile to the camp after the men’s top seed Atanu Das crashed out in round two. [caption id=“attachment_4240951” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of India’s Deepika Kumari. AP[/caption] It was a disappointing end to their campaign, close on the heels of the overwhelming success at the Asian Championship in Dhaka, where they bagged a rich haul of nine medals three gold, four silver and two bronze. Deepika got past three of her teammates Nivetha Ganesan 6-0, Laishram Bombayla Devi 7-3 and Ankita Bhakat 6-2 to make the last-four. But Korean second seed Kim Surin shattered the former world number one’s gold medal dream with a thrilling 6-5 win in the shoot-off (10-9) and Deepika had to settle for third place. The fifth Indian in the draw, Monika Saren was blanked 0 -6 by the eventual silver medallist Surin in the last-16. None of Indian male archers could make the quarter-finals. Das, who topped the qualifications, could not replicate that when it mattered most, making a round two exit with a 3-7 loss to the 16th seed and eventual silver medallist Matteo Fissore of Italy. In an all-Indian first round clash 12th seeded Jayanta Talukdar beat Rahul Banerjee 7-3, but lost 2-6 in the very next round to the fifth seeded Kim Joo Wan of Korea. Swami Indrachand, seeded 10th, won his first round with a comfortable 7-1 win over China’s Peng Cheng only to face a 2-6 defeat at the hands of Plihon Pierre in the next round.