Deepika Kumari of Jharkhand, established the third record of the 34th senior National archery championship in the women’s 50m FITA event here on Tuesday.
Deepika scored 346 out of 360 erasing the previous best of 333 set by L. Bombayla Devi of Railways in 2012.
The 19-year-old, however, committed the cardinal sin of removing the arrows in her final set of six in the 30m event before the score was noted and signed. The rule violation robbed her of all the points from the six arrows, and the gold medal and possibly another record.
She was credited with only 295 points, and that helped V. Pranitha of Gujarat emerge the No. 1 with a total of 1336. Deepika ended second with 1320.
“I knew the rule but I pulled out the six arrows inadvertently,” she said.
In recent times, two of India’s leading archers, Dola Banerjee and Tarundeep Rai, were punished for such mistakes in World Cup events earlier this year.
The individual elimination also reached the final stage. The men’s title will be contested by Muni Ram Tirkey of Services and Atanu Das of PSPB.
The women’s recurve contest will be between top two seeds, Pranitha and Deepika Kumari. Both sailed through without much difficulty.
Deepika has always been the one to beat in the title race the past few years.
Seed No. 4 Rajat Chauhan of Rajasthan will be up against 16th-ranked Kawalpreet Singh of Punjab in the men’s compound final while top seed Jhano Hansdah will be challenged by Punjab’s Ramandeep Kaur in the women’s summit clash.
Jharkhand’s veteran Jhano figured prominently in the compound mixed team event as she and Sudhakar Paswan got the better of the Rajasthan duo of Rajat Chauhan and Swati Dudhwal 152-150 in the final.
Punjab took the bronze medal.
The final day on Wednesday will have the team elimination and finals and individual and recurve mixed team finals.
At the end of the second day, Jharkhand leads the medal tally with six gold, two silver and four bronze medals. Services follows next with 2-2-0.
