Deepika Kumari bagged a silver medal in women’s individual recurve as India ended their 2024 Archery World Cup Final with a solitary medal at Tlaxcala de Xicohténcatl, Mexico on Sunday.
The 30-year-old Kumari lost out 0-6 in straight sets to China’s Li Jiaman in the gold medal match.
Seeded third in the eight-archer field, Kumari had earlier beaten Mexico’s Alejandra Valencia 6-4 in the semi-finals and China’s Yang Xiaolei 6-0 in the quarter-finals.
The podium finish in the Mexican city marked a sixth career medal for Kumari at the World Cup Final. She had previously won four silver and a bronze in the season ending event.
Dola Banerjee, in women’s recurve, is the only Indian to have won a gold medal at the World Cup Final – a feat she achieved back in 2007 in Dubai.
Among the other Indians in contention at Tlaxcala de Xicohténcatl, Dhiraj Bommadevara went down 4-6 to 2024 Paris Olympics bronze medallist Lee Woo Seok of South Korea in the opening round to suffer an early exit.
Bommadevara led 4-2 at a point but failed to sustain his momentum as Lee won two sets in a row to knock him out of the competition.
Elsewhere in men’s compound, India’s Priyansh exited in the opening round with a loss against compatriot Prathamesh Fuge.
Fuge then lost to Denmark’s Mathias Fullerton in the semi-finals, despite shooting a perfect 150. The Danish archer shot closer to the center in a shoot-off to enter the final.
Fuge failed to recover from that blow and ended up losing his bronze medal match 146-150 to Mike Schloesser.
Meanwhile, Jyothi Surekha Vennam lost in the opening round of women’s compound.
