India’s archer Deepika Kumari on Sunday made a giant leap to stardom, claiming the gold medal in the women’s recurve individual event at the Commonwealth Games.
On a day when India’s most experienced, Dola Banerjee had to settle for bronze, the 16-year-old Ranchi girl maintained her cool composure and defied the windy conditions at the Yamuna Sports Complex to thrash Olympic bronze medallist Alison Wiliamson in straight sets (6-0) for the yellow metal.
This was India’s second gold in archery after the women’s trio of Deepika, Dola and Bombayala Devi Laishram won the gold in the recurve team event.
Double Olympian and winner of 2007 World Cup finals Dola went down to Athens bronze medallist Williamson 2-6, while Deepika beat Anbarasi Subramaniam of Malaysia 7-1 in the semi-finals.
In the bronze medal play-off, Dola got the better of Subramaniam of Malaysia 6-2.
“The wind was blowing from right to left very strongly, something that did Dola in. I asked Deepika to maintain her cool and not to get disturbed by the wind factor. She did just that. I am so happy for her,” women’s team coach Poornima Mahato told PTI.
Daughter of an autorickshaw driver, Deepika is the reigning cadet world champion and she recently won a silver medal at the World Cup stage 4 held in Shanghai last month, a performance that enabled her qualify for the coveted World Cup finals in Edinburgh.
In today’s final, an unruffled Deepika shot 10-9-8 to win the first set 2-0 by a slender one point margin that put pressure on Williamson.
With the crowd cheering ‘Come On Deepika... Jai Ho...”, for the Indian, the pressure was evident on the veteran 29-year-old Englishwoman as she managed 8-9-8 compared to Deepika’s 9-10-9 to lose the second set by three points.
Leading 4-0, Deepika was at her best in the third set as she shot three perfect 10s to clinch the issue. Williamson could only manage 9—8—7 to go down 0—6.
Crediting her parents, coaches (Poornima and Dharmendra Tiwari) at the Tata Archery Academy for her triumph, Deepika said, “I am over the moon. I am thankful to my parents, coaches who have supported through out.”
“I just focussed on not to lose hope and concentrate on my shooting. I was hopeful to win this medal. I just wanted to be more confident,” he said.
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