Deepika Kumari, India’s premier recurve archer, secured a silver medal at the Archery World Cup Final 2024 held in Tlaxcala, Mexico. This marks her fifth silver medal at the World Cup Final, as she lost the summit clash 0-6 to China’s Li Jiaman.
Deepika Kumari’s Journey
Returning to the World Cup Final after a three-year hiatus following the birth of her daughter in December 2022, Deepika was seeded third in the eight-archer field. She had a smooth run through the semifinals, defeating Yang Xiaolei of China 6-0 in the quarter-finals and edging out Alejandra Valencia of Mexico 6-4 in the semifinals.
The Final Showdown
In the final, Deepika faced Li Jiaman, who was part of the Chinese women’s archery team that won silver at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Despite her strong performance throughout the tournament, Deepika was unable to match Li’s precision and consistency, losing the match 0-6.
Wonderful news to start the day folks 💫
Deepika Kumari wins Silver medal in Recurve event at Archery World Cup Final.
She lost to Chinese shooter 0-6 in Final.
It's overall 6th medal for Deepika at World Cup Final. #Archery pic.twitter.com/ZtTXk2T8t2— India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) October 21, 2024
India’s Campaign
While Deepika’s silver medal is a commendable achievement, the overall campaign for India ended with just one medal. In the men’s recurve section, Dhiraj Bommadevara, despite leading 4-2, could not hold off the challenge from South Korea’s Paris Olympics bronze medallist, Lee Woo Seok in the opening round and made an early exit.
The pressure once again seemed to affect the Indian archers, who have often struggled in high-stakes matches. The five-member Indian contingent, comprising three compounds and two recurve archers, thus concluded their season-ending World Cup Final campaign with just one medal.
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