Star archer Deepika Kumari failed to impress in the qualifying round in her highly anticipated return, finishing 37th behind Ankita Bhakat in the World Cup Stage 3 in Paris on Wednesday. World number three Deepika, who made her comeback in India last year after the Tokyo Olympics debacle, shot a disappointing 638 in the qualifying round of 72 darts, a massive 37 points behind Korean Lee Gahyun, who took the lead. took pole position in the women’s recurve. section. Her poor ranking meant Deepika was in for a tough draw as the former world number one will face a possible second-round clash against Korean Choi Misun, the gold medalist of the 2016 Olympic team in Rio. Deepika will face Italy’s Chiara Rebagliati in her first round.
The three-time Olympian was a paragon of inconsistency. After starting with four tens, including two X (closest to the middle) and a 9, Deepika hit the black ring (4) and even failed the last dart from the fifth end.
There was more frustration for her as she ended the first half by firing into the red ring twice (7-7). Halfway through, she only got 323 points.
At the same time, halfway through, she shot 18 perfect tens, which was just one behind Gahyun, something that summed up Deepika’s inconsistency on the day.
Under pressure, Deepika slipped further in the final set of 36 darts, where she took just 315 points, after taking five 7s and one 6 to finish her qualifying round. She had a share of 11 perfect 10s in the last half.
In 31st place, Ankita (644) was the best among the Indian women as she made the mixed pair team with 27th seeded Tarundeep Rai (670), with the duo taking 13th place.
Pravin Jadhav, who also made a comeback after his debacle at the Tokyo Olympics, finished 30th with 668 points, while veteran Jayanta Talukdar (667) took 32nd as the recurve men’s team secured eighth places in the draw.
The women’s recurve team, on the other hand, dropped to 13th place.
Previously, the Indian women’s compound team lost the bronze playoff to France, while the men’s team exited a quarter-final after losing to Turkey.
A day after World Cup silver medalist Jyothi Surekha Vennam raised expectations with a second-place finish, the women’s trio of Jyothi, Priya Gurjar and Muskan Kirar lost 228-231 to Great Britain in the semi-final.
Fighting for the bronze, the team forfeited a two-point lead, losing 231-233 to their French opponents Sophie Dodemont, Lola Grandjean and Sandra Herve.
promoted
After a bye to the quarter-finals, the third-seeded Indian women’s team had started knocking out their Brazilian rivals 230-227.
The men’s team of Abhishek Verma, Mohan Bhardwaj and Aman Saini started with a 234-232 win over South Africa, but suffered a one-point loss to Turkey and went down 234-235.
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