Deepika Kumari and husband Atanu Das won individual golds in the recurve women’s and men’s events respectively at the Archery World Cup Stage 1. Their victory ensured India’s recurve archers’ best ever finish to a World Cup with two individual golds, one team gold and a team bronze.
Deepika beat Mexico’s Alejandra Valencia 7-3 to claim her 3rd individual World Cup gold. Das, who married Deepika in June last year, defeated Spanish debutant Daniel Castro 6-4 to win his first individual World Cup medal.
Das’s result is India’s best ever in men’s recurve at the World Cup since Jayanta Talukda won gold in Croatia in 2009.
Earlier, the Indian women’s recurve team beat Mexico 5-4 in the final shoot off to win gold at the Archery World Cup Stage 1. Deepika Kumari shot a perfect 10 with the final arrow to help her team, which also included Ankita Bhakat and Komalika Bari, shoot 27 and thus beat the hosts 27-26.
This is the first World Cup gold for the women’s recurve team in seven years.
India’s mixed team consisting of Atanu Das and Ankita then won bronze, upsetting top seed USA 6-2 in the final.
Returning to the World Cup after nearly two years, the Indian women’s team were trailing 2-4 in the third set. They, however, bounced back in the fourth set before clinching victory in the fifth.
Deepika, who was competing for her fifth World Cup stage team event gold medal, showed composure to drill a perfect 10 in the final arrow of the shoot-off to put pressure on the 2012 London Olympics silver medalist Aida Roman who needed a nine but only to drift away for an eight.
This was India’s fifth recurve women’s team gold in World Cup having won in Shanghai- 2011, Medellin-2013, Wroclaw-2013 and 2014 previously.