Archery World Cup Final 2024: Deepika Kumari Wins Silver Medal; Remaining Indian Contingent Draw A Blank

Top recurve archer Deepika Kumari settled for silver in the Archery World Cup Final 2024 after losing the gold medal clash 0-6 to China's Li Jiaman on Sunday (October 20) in Tlaxcala, Mexico.

Returning to the World Cup Final after three years following the birth of her daughter in December 2022, four-time Olympian Deepika, seeded third in the eight-archer field, was the only Indian to secure a medal at the Tlaxcala event.

She had a smooth run through the semifinals but probably the pressure of gold medal match got to her against fourth-seed Li Jiaman, a team silver medalist from the Paris Olympics.

It was Deepika's sixth medal in nine appearance at the World Cup Final where she has won silver five times and also bagged a bronze. Dola Banerjee is the only Indian archer to have won a gold in the World Cup Final, having topped the podium in Dubai 2007.

After a stellar semifinal win against Mexico's Alejandra Valencia, Deepika couldn't maintain momentum. She dropped the first set by a single point (26-27). Despite improving in the second set, Li's flawless 30, including an X-ring shot, gave the Chinese archer a commanding a 2-0 lead (30-28).

The third set proved decisive as Deepika's second arrow landed in the red 7-ring, allowing Li to claim victory with three solid 9s, taking the set 27-25 and sealing the gold on her debut World Cup Final appearance.

In the semifinals, Deepika triumphed over home favourite and Paris Olympics bronze medalist Valencia, edging her out 6-4 (29-28, 26-26, 26-29, 28-28, 28-27).

It also avenged Deepika's bronze medal loss to Valencia from the Yecheon World Cup earlier this year. Deepika's campaign had begun with a dominant 6-0 victory over China's Yang Xiaolei (27-23, 29-22, 29-27).

While Deepika brought some joy, the remaining Indian contingent disappointed as men's recurve archer Dhiraj Bommadevara, and the compound archers Prathamesh Fuge, Priyansh and Jyothi Surekha Vennam all failed to qualify for the medal rounds.

In the men's recurve section, Dhiraj, the sole qualifier, could not hold off the challenge from South Korea's Paris Olympics bronze medallist, Lee Woo Seok despite leading 4-2 in the opening round and made an early exit.

Third-seeded Dhiraj started strongly, drawing the first set and winning the second. However, he missed the opportunity to close out the match in the third by just one point with the South Korean drawing level before delivering flawless performances in the fourth and fifth sets. Dhiraj eventually lost 4-6 (28-28, 29-26, 28-28, 26-30, 28-29).

In the compound events, the three-member Indian contingent had seen their campaigns ending on Saturday (October 19). Fuge finished fourth after a tense semifinal loss, while Priyansh and Jyothi Surekha Vennam fell in the quarterfinals.

Priyansh lost his last 8 match to compatriot Fuge by a scoreline of 147-146, while Vennam lost 145-147 to Estonian Meeri-Marita Paas. Fuge also failed to cross the semi-final round, going down in a shoot off against Denmark's Matthias Fullerton.

Fuge and Fullerton finished level at 150 each, and the duo were forced into a shoot-off in the last four clash. In the shoot-off, both archers hit 10s, but the Dane's arrow was closer to the bulls-eye, earning him the win.