Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari both lost their bronze medal matches in the archery World Cup finals in Yankton on Thursday, bringing India’s disappointing performance to a close. On Friday, the duo battled in the chilly and cloudy weather due to the absence of an Indian recurve coach.
Das was beaten 6-0 by incumbent Olympic champion Mete Gazoz of Turkey in a one-sided bronze playoff (27-29, 26-27, 28-30). When Deepika lost in the shoot-off to Olympic group bronze medalist Michelle Kroppen, he worked as Deepika’s coach.
Deepika, who was making her eighth WCF participation, misfired a six in the shoot-off, losing 5-6 (6-9) in the final.
A flawless set of 30 evaded the three-time Indian Olympian as her German opponent cranked up the initial strain to glide to a 4-0 lead in her comeback to competition after more than two months following her quarterfinal elimination at the Tokyo Games. Michelle shot perfect scores in the first two sets (30-28, 30-29), while the third set ended in a tie with both archers shooting 28.
Deepika seized the chance to clinch the match by one point as the world number 14 began to stumble in the fourth set, her arrow landing in the red circle (8). (28-27). Deepika rallied from a 3-5 deficit in the make-or-break fifth set to force a shoot-out.
Deepika, on the other hand, struggled in the shoot-off, firing wide in the blue ring.
Deepika began the tournament by defeating Olympic team silver medalist Svetlana Gomboeva of Russia 6-4 in the quarterfinals. She went on to win four silver medals and a bronze medal.
Elena Osipova of Russia, a double Tokyo Olympics silver medalist, defeated her 6-2 in the semifinals.
Das started his campaign with a 6-2 win over Maximilian Weckmueller of Germany, only to lose 2-6 to rank as number one Brady Ellison of the United States.
B Srinivas Rao, Deepika’s childhood coach, was supposed to join the two in Yankton, but the arrangement was scrapped at the last minute, according to India Today.
