Deepika Kumari stuns Chang Hye-Jin, wins bronze at Antalya Archery World Cup

New Delhi: Archer​ Deepika Kumari stuns world number 8, Chang Hye Jin, on Sunday to win bronze medal in Women's Recurve event at Antalya Archery World Cup.

Deepika beat the South Korea in straight sets 6-2 (26-25, 29-26, 26-28, 28-27) to stamp her authority.

Earlier, the 20-year-old archer put up a brave fight in the semi-finals but was denied a place in the final by Olympic gold medallist Ki Bo Bae of Korea.

Deepika was the only Indian who made it to the last four as veteran Dola Banerjee, Satbir Kaur and Snehal Divakar all lost in the first round in individual women’s recurve competition.

The former world number one began the tournament with a resounding 6-0 victory over Christine Bjerendal of Sweden. The ninth seed then thrashed Anastasia Pavlova of Ukraine 7-3 and edged past American La Nola Pritchard 6-5 to reach the pre-quarters.

After beating Kaori Kawanaka of Japan 6-4, the in-form Indian archer defeated Taipei’s Shih-Chia Lin 7-3 to set up a meeting with multiple Olympic and World Championships gold medallist Korean Ki Bo Bae.

However, with a 4-6 loss to Bae, the Indian set her eyes on the bronze medal against second-seeded Hye Jin Chang of Korea. And eventually Deepika beat her to win the bronze in Turkey.  

In the Antalya 2015 recurve women's event Misun Choi (KOR) and Bo Bae Ki (KOR) won gold and silver respectively.