Paris: India’s first archery medal at the Olympics remained a dream as Deepika Kumari lost to South Korean Suhyeon Nam in the women’s individual recurve event on Saturday to end the country’s campaign at the ongoing Games in the sport. Leading 4-2 at one stage, Deepika squandered the advantage to lose 4-6.
Earlier, Deepika reached the individual quarterfinals with a 6-4 win over Germany’s Michelle Kroppen. The Indian veteran made a bright start against the German with a hat-trick of nines. Kroppen had a poor six at first and from there it was just catch-up for her.
The second game was a tie as Kroppen hit consecutive nines and Deepika made up for an 8 with a 10. Both the archers began the third set with 7s but Deepika recovered to fire a 10 while the German could not hit two 9s. The last shot of 9 was enough for Deepika to take a 5-1 lead.
The German fought back with two 10s (2nd and 3rd) while Deepika only had one 10, in the fourth set. A draw would have been enough for Deepika to move to the next round and she managed that despite starting with an 8.
On the same day, Bhajan Kaur too bowed out. Bhajan lost the shoot-off to Indonesia’s Diananda Choirunisa. The 18-year-old Bhajan did well to stretch her Indonesian rival to shoot-off but fluffed the first shot by managing an eight when she needed a 10 to secure her passage into the last-eight.
