Samsun

Deepika Kumari held her nerve in the playoff to down Lisa Unruh and win the bronze medal in the Archery World Cup Finals.
Both the players were tied at 5-5 at the end of five sets, which necessitated a shoot-off. Deepika and Lisa both shot nine but Deepika won the bronze because her arrow was closer to the centre. This was Deepika’s fifth World Cup Finals podium finish.

A draw would have been enough for Deepika to seal the issue in the fifth set but in the absence of a coach the Indian struggled to keep pace with the timing and shot wide. Deepika, a veteran in the World Cup Finals with four silver medals, came out on top in the shoot-off. “This was for the first time I shot at a big competition like this without a coach. I’m very happy. The stronger the competition, the better we get,” Deepika said. The shoot-off was tense and Deepika said she started panicking but motivated herself with no coach to look up to. “Most of the times I end up losing the shoot-off, so I started panicking. I told myself, ‘I will accept whatever be the result. I will just give my best shot’,” she said after the thrilling win.

The Indian archers thus concluded their campaign with two bronze medals and one silver in the exhibition fixture for the compound mixed event, which had only two teams, including the host nation.

In his second World Cup Final appearance, Abhishek Verma had clinched the bronze in the men’s compound event. The de-recognised Archery Association of India had failed to hire a coach for the season-ending meet. Recurve coach Dharmendra Tiwari is indisposed, while compound national coach Jiwanjyot Singh has resigned over the Dronacharya Award snub.