Deepika Kumari bagged her fourth silver medal in five years at the ‘Archery World Cup Final’ after going down to Korea’s Choi Misun in Mexico City.
Eyeing her first gold medal in five attempts at the showpiece season-ending event, Deepika won her quarters and semifinals easily but lost 2-6 against the reigning world number one and top-seeded Misun on Sunday.
India thus concluded their campaign with two silver medals with Abhishek Verma opening the account for the country in the compound section on Saturday.
Deepika and Misun split points in the first set after shooting 29 each but the 19-year-old Korean put her Indian opponent on the backfoot reeling off two more 29-point sets to take an unassailable 5-1 lead.
Both the archers put in 28 each in the last to split the set points as it was another disappointing end for Deepika.
“I wish I had won gold,” Deepika admitted. “It’s something that doesn’t seem to happen to me.”
Incredibly, for all her success, Deepika’s only two international gold medals to date are the famous Commonwealth Games win in 2010 and, two years later, the Antalya stage of the Archery World Cup.
This was Deepika’s fourth World Cup Final silver after being runner-up at Istanbul 2011, Tokyo 2012 and Paris 2013, an unparalleled achievement in consistency on the circuit.
“My arrows went up. I tried to fix my sight but nothing worked,” explained Deepika.
Making a comeback after one-year, sixth seeded Deepika defeated Korean third seed Kawanaka Kaori 6-4 in the quarters to open her campaign in the showpiece event.
In the semis, she won by an identical margin against Le Chien-Ying who settled for a bronze after beating Mackenzie Brown in the third place playoff.
Earlier Saturday, Verma had bagged India a first ever ‘Archery World Cup Final’ medal in the compound section after being pipped by Turkey’s Demir Elmaagcli.
