Wroclaw, Poland: Indian women recurve team managed to upset hot-favourite South Koreans in the finals of the World Cup Archery (Stage IV) at Wroclaw, Poland on Sunday. It was the second successive gold for the tri of Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Rimil Buriuly after Medellin meet win where they outplayed China.
 

It was the nail-biting finish for Indians as they managed to sneak the win by a thin margin of 219-215 which was a very thin.

Koreans were the favourites to clinch this match as their team of Yun Ok-Hee, Ki Bo Bae and Joo Hyun Jung never fell below 222 points in the elimination matches when they contested against the United States, Italy and Russia.

At the end of the first end of six arrows, both were tied at 56 and after the second, it was 110-all. As the conditions were not quite favourable for both the teams as wind was quite strong. Eventually after going neck-in-neck, they levelled at 163-all by the end of their third end.

Indian women were firing more of 7’s and 8’s whereas Koreans were finding it hard to keep up the pace with Indians and with their 7’s and 6’s things just getting worse for them.

As the match progressed and came down to the final six arrows, Ki Bo Bae couldn’t keep up her momentum and fired a six pointer whereas Indian trio nailed it by three perfect 10’s one after the other to knock them down by 219-215.

With this emphatic win, Deepika’s brought an end to the four World Stages in which she able to grab couple of golds (Medellin, Wroclaw) and couple of silvers (both Shanghai) too along with a bronze (Medellin).

This thrilling win has also ensured a place in the top seven because of which she qualified for the World Cup finals which is going to be held on September 21 and 22 in Paris and it’s going to be for the second time that she will be representing India. Even last year, she made her presence felt with a spectacular performance when she won a silver medal for the country.

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) gets a quota berth.

Dola Banerjee is the only Indian to have won a gold in the World Finals (in 2007).