- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
SUPPORTERS of Indian archery had hoped that the country would be able to shed the disappointment of Tokyo Games and bounce back in the World Cup Final (WCF) which was recently held in Yankton, the US.
However, they remained disappointed as India’s star contenders Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari, who also happen to be a couple, lost their respective bronze-medal games to see their country return empty-handed from the WCF.
The Indian couple struggled under cold and overcast conditions in Yankton on Friday (1) and the lack of a recurve coach made their task even more difficult. Das lost a one-sided bronze playoff game to reigning Olympic champion Mete Gazoz of Turkey 6-0 (27-29, 26-27, 28-30).
Das doubled up as his wife Deepika’s coach when the world No.2 lost in the shoot-off to Olympic bronze medallist Michelle Kroppen of Germany. Appearing in her eighth world cup final, Deepika misfired a six to lose 5-6 (6-9) in the shoot-off.
A perfect set of 30 eluded Deepika, who returned to action after more than two months following her quarterfinal exit in Tokyo, as Kroppen stepped up early pressure to take a 4-0 lead.
Kroppen drilled in perfect scores in the first two sets (30-28, 30-29), while the third was a tie with both archers shooting 28-all. The world No. 14 started to wobble in the fourth set, her arrow landing in the red circle (8), as Deepika seized the opportunity to win the set by one point (28-27). Down 3-5, the Indian collected another 28 in the make-or-break fifth set to force a shoot-off but in the shoot-off, she faltered by shooting wide in the blue ring.
According to sources, Deepika’s childhood coach B Srinivas Rao was to join the duo at Yankton but the plan was shelved at the last moment. “We had Lokesh Chand as compound coach, and Rao was to travel there but at last moment the plan was changed,” an official told PTI without getting into specifics.
Earlier on Thursday, ace compound archer Abhishek Verma failed to add to his three world cup final medals, making a first-round exit with a loss to eventual silver medallist Braden Gellenthien of the US.
