Deepika Kumari won her fifth silver medal at the World Cup Final. After losing the summit clash 0-6 to China’s Li Jiaman. The Indian premier recurve archer is continuously failing to win the gold medal. It was Deepika Kumari’s ninth appearance at the World Cup Final where she also bagged a bronze. But there is no sign of gold for the top Indian archer. She returned to the World Cup after three years.
Deepika Kumari, a four-time Olympian, was seeded third among the eight archers. She breezed into the semifinals, but the strain of the gold medal match against fourth-seeded Li Jiaman, a team silver medalist from the Paris Olympics, most likely got to her. Deepika Kumari failed in the Olympics and could not bring in any medal from the multinational event. Despite having a lot of hopes she failed to deliver.
Indian archers have consistently failed to keep on the pressure and failed to deliver at the right moment. Dola Banerjee is the only Indian archer to have won a gold in the World Cup Final. She topped the podium in Dubai 2007. Since then nobody has won the gold medal for India in the world championship event. In the men’s recurve section, Dhiraj Bommadevara failed to perform.
Indian archers are a failure to the nation
Dhiraj was unable to hold against South Korea’s Paris Olympics bronze medalist, Lee Woo Seok, in the first round, and was eliminated. This is a concern for the nation’s grassroot development. The young archers will lose their interest in the game and shift their focus on different fields as in recent times there has been no massive success in the archery section. The pressure appeared to affect the Indian archers, who have frequently failed in high-stakes contests.
The five-member archery Indian team, which included three compound and two recurve archers, finished their season-ending World Cup Final campaign with only one medal. On the other side, the three-member Indian contingent returned empty-handed, bringing their campaign to a conclusion on Saturday. Prathamesh Fuge finished fourth following a tough semifinal loss, while Priyansh and Jyothi Surekha Vennam did not advance to the medal round.
