The Indian men’s archery team on Saturday won gold in the World Cup archery stage IV meet in Shanghai. The Indians also picked up one silver and a bronze medal.
The men’s recurve team, consisting of Jayanta Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee, won the gold medal defeating Japan 224-220.
Teenager Deepika Kumari, however, failed to make history succumbing to the intense pressure of playing her maiden senior final and lost to Korea’s Bo Bae Ki, to settle for a silver.
In the best of five sets final, Deepika went out of the contest after losing the first two sets. Though she tied the third one for a point, the Korean came up with three perfect 10s to seal the victory. The set scores in favour of the Korean were 29-27, 29-27, 28-28, 30-27. Two points are awarded for winning a set and one point for a tie.
Talukdar gave India the men’s individual recurve bronze medal. With two wins and a loss against Athens Olympic champion Marco Galiazzo of Italy, Talukdar comfortably won the fourth meeting between the two. The Indian ended with seven points as against the Italian’s three. The set score in favour of Talukdar were 28-29, 30-26, 28-28, 29-27, 28-27.
Deepika and Talukdar also ensured qualification for the Edinburgh World Cup finals on September 18 and 19.
