Press Trust of India
Shanghai, April 27: Archer Deepika Kumari equalled Wednesday the world record in women’s recurve event before helping the country to the mixed pair bronze play-off in the first stage of the Archery World Cup which got underway here.
The former World No.1 and winner of two Commonwealth Games gold medals shot 686 in the 72-arrow ranking round to equal the feat of London Olympics gold-medallist Ki Bo Bae of Korea.
Deepika set the range ablaze shooting 346 in the first half and needed just 341 to get past the Korean but two 9s in the last end meant the 2015 record remained intact.
Top seed Deepika will now play round three of last 32 directly, while her teammates Laxmirani Majhi who ranked a poor 45th and Rimil Buriuly (75th) will start from round one. The women’s team is ranked fourth.
Deepika’s effort also enabled India to get a top ranking in mixed pair as she partnered 12th ranked Atanu Das (671 points) to defeat Turkey 5-3 in the first round of eight. In the semifinals, the pair lost to fourth-ranked Chinese Taipei 3-5 and will face third-seeded Koreans in the bronze medal play-off.
In the men’s recurve qualification, Atanu, Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia finished among top-20 to hand the team a third place and a bronze medal.
