Missing two World Cup events this season owing to indifferent form, Deepika Kumari turned back to her old coach and equipment to regain the magic touch in the World Cup archery Stage 4 at Wroclaw (Poland) on Wednesday.
The Ranchi archer topped the qualification round by accumulating 676 points after shooting two rounds of 36 arrows over 70m distance. Since switching to new equipment, Deepika found the going tough by failing to make it to Shanghai and Antalya World Cup events.
She did go to Medellin in Colombia but failed to make an impression owing to poor scores. She returned to her coach Dharmendra Tiwary at Jamshedpur and picked up the old bow that served her exceptionally well.
With Laxmirani Majhi (655) finishing 11th overall and Laishram Bombayla Devi ending on 21st (642), the Indian trio finished second best behind China in the team ranking with 1973 points
In the men’s section, Jayanta Talukdar lived up to the expectations with a fifth place finish by scoring 670 points. Tarundeep Rai ended a slot lower on 669 and Atanu Das on ninth (666). The Indian men’s side topped the qualification with 2005.
The Deepika-Talukdar duo emerged the best mixed pair with a total of 1346.
Abhishek Verma led the Indian compound team’s charge with a creditable 702 to figure fifth in the qualification round. Rajat Chauhan (698) finished 15th and Sandeep Kumar (697) was 18th. The three accumulated 2097 points to give India third spot in team ranking. Th. Govindas Singh (690) ended 31st and would compete only in individual event.
Young Purvasha Shende (685), Trisha Deb (685) and V. Jyothi Surekha (683) ended 12th, 13th and 15th respectively. India was ranked fifth with 2053. P. Lily Chanu (668) was placed 30th and would play only in individual event. Purvasha and Verma gave India third rank in mixed team event with a total of 1387.
