India defeat Korea to win gold medal in archery WC

Zee Media Bureau/Chaitan Papnai

New Delhi: Indian women recurve archery team of Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Rimil Buriuly has won the gold medal in the World Cup in Wroclaw. It’s their second successive gold after Medellin meet. Indian team defeated the top seeded Koreans to win the medal. In the finals, Indian team earned 219 points overall, four points more than the Koreans who managed to score 215. At one point of time the match was evenly poised as both the teams tied at 163-163 by end three. Windy conditions also forced the archers to change their strategy. It’s a big achievement for the Indian team as in the finals they got the better of Yun Ok-Hee, Ki Bo Bae, and Joo Hyun Jung, who had never scored lower than 222 points in the tournament with convincing victories over the United States, Italy and Russia to storm into the final. This Indian pair of Bombayala, Deepika and Rimil had also won the World Cup Stage 3 in Medellin, Colombia last month. The Danish women won the bronze medal by defeating the much stronger team of Russia by 210-194. The World Cup Finals will be take place in Paris next month. In the sigles event too Deepika Kumari finished inside top seven to qualify for the World Cup Finals to be held on September 21 and 22. Deepika thus qualified for the Finals for second year in a row. In her maiden appearance in Tokyo last year, Deepika had returned with a silver. Based on their rankings after four stages of the World Cup, top seven archers in men's and women's sections make the cut for the Finals, while the hosts country (France) get a quota berth. Dola Banerjee is the only Indian to have won a gold in the World Finals (in 2007). With inputs PTI