Kolkata: Deepika Kumari-led women archers clinched the recurve team gold after routing Mexico 6-0 in the final as India returned with five medals in the Archery World Cup Stage IV in Wroclaw, Poland on Sunday.
Deepika herself won three medals on Sunday as she also bagged a bronze each in recurve women’s individual event and recurve mixed team pair event with her partner Jayanta Talukdar.
The men’s recurve team settled for a silver after losing to Mexico 3-5 in the final on Sunday.
The Indian compound mixed pair of Abhishek Verma and Puvasha Shende had clinched a silver medal last night. In the women’s recurve team event, the second seeded India women’s trio of Deepika, Bombayla Devi and Laxmirani Majhi routed Mexico 6-0 without surrendering a single set point.
Deepika herself shot three of the Indian team’s five 10s. “The match was not too difficult. Hopefully we can do the same at the Asian Games,” said Deepika.
“This event has already raised our confidence. We have had a difficult season, but the hard work we have put in ahead of Incheon is starting to pay off.”
The Indian trio had earlier trounced their opponents from Georgia 6-2 in the semifinals.
In the men’s recurve team final, however, the Indian trio of Tarundeep Rai, Jayanta Talukdar and Atanu Das lost to Mexico 3-5. Mexico took a 2-0 lead and never looked back. India trailed 2-4 in the fourth set with Mexico’s anchor archer Juan Rene Serrano only needing a red to seal the match.
The only right-handed archer in Mexico’s team, Juan Rene shot last in the trio’s rotation and he did not make any mistake. It was the second World Cup stage team gold for Mexico. The other was won at Medellin last year.
In the women’s recurve individual event, Deepika beat Tatiana Segina of Russia 6-2 in the bronze-medal match. Deepika then partnered Talukdar in the recurve mixed team pair event and thrashed their Belarus opponents 6-0 in the bronze-medal match today.
