Guangju (South Korea): Deepika Kumari, India’s most prestigious archers, was also unfortunate for the sixth time and lost in the Round of 32 of the World Championship on Thursday, while the 15 -year -old Gatha Khadke performed brilliantly and made it to the pre -quarterfinals in the country.
Four-time Olympian Deepika, who finished sixth in the qualification, lost 4-6 in five sets against Diananda Choirunisa of Indonesia.
Now everyone’s eyes will be on the pre-quarter-finals to be held on Friday, where the saga will face the biggest challenge of her career as Paris Olympic champion and world number one Lim Sea-Hyon.
22-year-old Korean player Lim, running in excellent form, defeated Ankita Bhakat 6-2 with six perfect 10 in two sets.
For India, the youth saga is the last hope and it will have to be seen whether the Pune player is able to get the country’s first medal in the recurve category after Dan Bosch in 2019.
In the current tournament, India has won the historic gold in the men’s team category and silver medal in the mixed team. Both these medals came in the compound class.
The world’s former number one archer Deepika started poorly, she started with a score of 25 in the first set while Diananda took a 0-2 lead with a score of 27. The second set Deepika won with 28 points and made the score to 2-2.
The Indonesian player scored two 10 and one nine in the third set, causing Deepika to face 27–29 defeat and lagged behind 2–4.
Both Deepika and Diananda gathered 29 in the fourth set, leading to Indonesia’s player 5-3.
On the crucial occasion in the decisive set, Deepika targeted eight points, which led to the score 27-27 and Diananda won the 6-4 match.
Deepika failed to win a medal for the sixth time in the World Championship, which shows the big difference between her reputation and results on the biggest platform of the game.
When Deepika stumbled, the saga showed restraint and accuracy bypassing her age.
The teenager, who won the 14th with 666 points in qualifying, defeated Fatima Hussainley of Azerbaranjan 7-1 (26-26, 27-25, 27-26, 28-24) in the first round and then defeated Britain’s Thia Rogers 6–0 (28-27, 27-26, 29-28).
His biggest exam was the world number eight-number eight-number German Olympian and former World Cup bronze medalist Mitchell Kropen Bauur, but the 176th place in the world did not show any hurry and won the match 6-4. The Indian player won 28–26, 27-27, 27-28, 28-28, 28-27.
Maharashtra’s saga, which made his debut in the senior category during the Madrid World Cup in July, had already shown its ability to reach the pre -quarter -finals there, he surprised everyone by scoring 686 marks in the qualification in national trials earlier this year. This was the highest score among all the players participating in the competition.
In view of the current form, India’s expectations in the recurve category are now on this young player.
