Ace Indian archer Deepika Kumari won her first two recurve individual elimination round contests to advance to the Round of 32 while the compound mixed team eyes for bronze after losing in the semi-finals in the World Championships at Belek in Turkey on Wednesday.
The compound mixed team of Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam produced an impressive performance to beat higher-ranked teams Denmark and Korea before losing to Russia in the semi-finals. They now play United States for the bronze medal play-off on Saturday.
The Indian duo, who qualified at 11th, first beat Denmark (who qualified sixth) 150-147 and then accounted for top team Korea — who was third in the qualification — by a good margin of 153-144. But the Indians lost narrowly (147-150) to Russia in the semi-finals last night.
Russia and Italy — who had beaten top-ranked United States — meet in the final on Saturday.
Deepika, who qualified at 10th, won an easy first round contest over Anete Kreicberga of Latvia 6-0 (29-24, 26-20, 29-28) before getting the better of Polishwoman Wioleta Myszor 6-2 (24-22, 25-28, 29-24, 27-24) in the second round.
Deepika faces London Olympics bronze medallist Mariana Avitia in the Round of 32 on Thursday.
Veteran Dola Banerjee also move into the Round of 32 with victory over Elena Mousikou of Cyprus (6-2: 27-28, 27-24, 29-24, 28-26) and Ana Maria Rendon of Colombia (6-0: 27-25, 28-24, 26-25). Banerjee play Lisa Unruh of Germany in the round of 32 on Thursday.
However, Chekrovolu Swuro crashed out of the Championships after losing to Bishindee Urantungalag of Mongolia 4-6 (26-29, 27-26, 27-28, 27-23, 22-29).
In the men’s individual recurve, all the members of the Indian trio of Tarundeep Rai, Jayanta Talukdar and Kapil advanced to the Round of 32.
India join Korea as the only countries with three men remaining in the competition.
Rai beat Matija Mihalic of Croatia 6-2 in the first round but tied 4-4 with Zhang Jianping of China before winning 6-4 while Talukdar did exactly the same, winning his fifth set against European bronze medallist Thomas Faucheron of France.
Kapil won a shoot-off against Daniel Pacheco of Colombia (6-5) in the second round after thrashing Artyom Gankin of Kazakhstan 6-0 (28-26, 28-24, 28-25).
In the Round of 32 matches, Talukdar faces Luis Alvarez of Mexico while Rai and Kapil will be up against Xing Yu of China and Simon Nesemann of Germany respectively.
