India's best recurve archer, Deepika Kumari, won her fifth silver medal at the World Cup Final after losing 0-6 to China's Li Jiaman in the final match. Deepika did well throughout the tournament, but she couldn't beat Li in the end. This was Deepika’s ninth time competing in this important event, making her one of India's most successful archers. She has also won a bronze medal at this event before.
Deepika Kumari came back to the World Cup Final after a three-year break because she had her daughter in December 2022. She was ranked third in the tournament and easily made it to the final. But in the gold medal match against Li Jiaman, who was ranked fourth, Deepika seemed to feel the pressure. Li, who had won a silver medal with her team at the Paris Olympics, performed perfectly and won the gold medal in her first time at the World Cup Final.
In the first set, Deepika lost by just one point, 26-27. She did better in the second set, but Li shot a perfect score of 30, including a bullseye, which increased her lead to 2-0. In the third set, one of Deepika's arrows hit the red 7-ring, which gave Li the chance to win. Li shot three 9s, winning the set 27-25 and securing the gold medal.
In the semifinals, Deepika won a close 6-4 match against Mexico's Alejandra Valencia, who had won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics. This win was important for Deepika because it made up for her earlier loss to Valencia at the Yecheon World Cup earlier in the year. Deepika had started her journey in the tournament strongly with a 6-0 win over China's Yang Xiaolei in the quarterfinals.
Dhiraj Bommadevara exits early in the men's recurve section
In the men's relay event, Dhiraj Bommadevara was the only Indian archer to qualify. He faced a tough opponent, South Korea's Lee Woo Seok, who had won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics. Dhiraj was leading 4-2 at one point but couldn’t keep up his advantage. Lee shot perfectly in the last two sets, leading to Dhiraj’s defeat with a score of 4-6.
Dhiraj, ranked third in the tournament, started well by tying the first set and winning the second set. However, he missed an important chance to finish the match in the third set by just one point, which allowed Lee to catch up. After that, Lee performed better and won the fourth and fifth sets, leading to Dhiraj's early exit from the competition.
India's compound archery team, made up of three members, did not win any medals at the World Cup Final. Prathamesh Fuge got the closest by finishing in fourth place after a close loss in the semifinals. Priyansh and Jyothi Surekha Vennam were not able to reach the medal rounds, meaning India did not win any medals in the compound archery category.