The Indian trio of Laishram Bombayla Devi, Rimil Buriuly and Deepika Kumari won their second successive gold medal on Sunday, defeating former world champion Korea 219-215 in the final of the recurve team event of the World Cup archery stage 4 at Wraclow, Poland. The three had won the gold at the Stage 3 meet at Medellin, Colombia, beating China in the final.
It was never easy against the Koreans in the final. One of the strongest teams in the qualification and elimination rounds, the Korean threesome of Ok-Hee Yun, Bo Bae Ki and Hyun-Jung Joo never scored less than 222 out of a possible 240 in the three knock-out matches against the U.S., Italy and Russia. Korea was third at Shanghai and first at Antalya. It did not compete at Medellin.
The Indian team won with modest scores against Indonesia, Mexico and Denmark before facing Korea which held a 5-2 lead over India in head-to-head contest since 2010.
The Koreans found the wind rather disturbing, as they shot four 8s, one 7 and a 6, the last one at a very critical stage of the contest. The Indians managed better, coming up with only two 7s and two 8s.
At the end of the first end of six arrows, both were tied at 56 and after the second, it was 110-all. It was level at 163 after the third, a rarity in a contest involving the Koreans.
When Bo Bae Ki shot a 6 in the first arrow of the final end, fortune smiled on India as its third archer shot a 7 in the final arrow. That did not matter as India was up by seven points and a clear winner by that time.
