Deepika Kumari bags her fifth silver at Archery World Cup Final; Dhiraj Bommadevara falls early

Deepika Kumari made her ninth World Cup Final appearance, clinching a bronze medal in the process.

Deepika Kumari, India’s leading recurve archer, clinched her fifth silver medal at the World Cup Final. She faced a 0-6 defeat against China’s Li Jiaman in the final showdown.

After a hiatus of three years due to the birth of her daughter in December 2022, Deepika, a four-time Olympian, made a remarkable comeback to the World Cup Final. She entered the competition as the third seed among the eight talented archers.

In the semifinals, she performed admirably; however, the pressure seemed to affect her performance in the gold medal match against Li Jiaman, the fourth seed and a silver medalist from the Paris Olympics.

Deepika made her ninth World Cup Final appearance and secured a bronze medal.

In Dubai 2007, Dola Banerjee made history as the sole Indian archer to clinch a gold at the World Cup Final.

Despite holding a 4-2 lead, Dhiraj Bommadevara was unable to resist the tough competition posed by South Korea’s Paris Olympics bronze medallist, Lee Woo Seok, in the men’s recurve category, resulting in an early elimination.

The Indian archers, who have frequently faced challenges in high-pressure situations, appeared to be impacted by the pressure once more.

The season-ending World Cup Final campaign came to a close for the Indian contingent, which consisted of three compound and two recurve archers, resulting in them securing only one medal.

Following an impressive victory in the semifinals against Alejandra Valencia of Mexico, Deepika unfortunately couldn’t sustain her momentum in the subsequent match.

Li took the lead early on by winning the first set with a narrow margin of one point (26-27). In the following set, despite a better performance from the opponent, Li showcased impeccable skills, scoring a perfect 30 points, which included hitting the X-ring. This outstanding performance secured a solid 2-0 lead for the Chinese archer (30-28).

In the pivotal third set, Deepika’s second arrow striking the red 7-ring paved the way for Li to secure triumph with three consistent 9s, winning the set 27-25 and clinching the gold in her first-ever World Cup Final.

Deepika emerged victorious in the semifinals by defeating the local favorite and Paris Olympics bronze medalist Valencia with a close score of 6-4 (29-28, 26-26, 26-29, 28-28, 28-27), thus avenging her previous bronze medal defeat to Valencia at the Yecheon World Cup earlier in the year.

Deepika kicked off her campaign with an impressive 6-0 win against China’s Yang Xiaolei, triumphing with scores of 27-23, 29-22, and 29-27.

India’s only qualifier in the men’s recurve category was Dhiraj, who held the third seed.

Facing off against the formidable second seed Lee Woo Seok, Dhiraj started the match with great resolve. He successfully held on for a draw in the initial set and then went on to claim a win in the following set.

He failed to seal the deal in the third set, coming just one point short, allowing the South Korean player to equalize before dominating with impeccable displays in the fourth and fifth sets.

Dhiraj ended up on the losing side with a score of 4-6, as the points stood at 28-28, 29-26, 28-28, 26-30, and 28-29.

The trio of Indian athletes failed to secure any medals, concluding their campaign without any success on Saturday.

Prathamesh Fuge clinched the fourth spot following a nail-biting defeat in the semifinals, as Priyansh and Jyothi Surekha Vennam fell short of making it to the medal matches.