Archer Deepika Kumari has won her first individual gold in six years at the Salt Late World cup. She had earlier won four silver medals at the Archery World Cup stage, reported the Indian Express.
Why is it huge?
She defeated Germany’s Michelle Kroppen in the recurve final with a 7-3 win. Kroppen is the indoor world team champion.
With this win, Deepika will represent India in the season-ending Archery World Cup Final in Samsun. It will be held in Turkey in October.
“Finally! That’s what I said when I won this gold medal.”
According to a report by IE, she said, “I was repeating to myself, ‘just do it the best, this is your time; just enjoy your game and forget about winning or losing and have fun.'"
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In her six appearances at the Archery World Cup from 2011-2013 and 2015, Deepika had come back with silver medals.
The last stage medal she had won was in 2015. But the last time she had won a stage event on an international platform was in 2012 in Antalya.
How did the game go?
At the Salt Lake game, Deepika had a good start taking a 2-0 set lead right at the beginning. The second set stood level at 28-28, bringing the score to 3-1. Kroppen then won the third set, levelling the match at 3-3.
Archer Deepika showed her experience in the final two sets and won both of them, taking away the match in her favour.
Deepika believes in enjoying her game. “Do I feel relieved to qualify? Yes and no. I’m not expecting anything, at the moment I’m just enjoying my game, I want to enjoy my game,” she said to IE.
Among the other Indian players, Abhishek Verma bagged an individual silver in the Compound category. He was also a part of the mixed team bronze with Jyothi Surekha Vennam.
Deepika Kumari along with Atanu Das also came second to Chinese Taipei. They lost by a close margin of 5-4.
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Kriti Dwivedi is an intern with SheThePeople.Tv