Indian archer Deepika Kumari created history by winning three Gold medals at the 2021 Archery World Cup Stage 3 in Paris. On the back of her glorious day, the 27-year-old has now climbed up to the top of the Women’s recurve rankings.
She reached the summit of the rankings for the first time since 2012. She was rewarded for her exceptional performance at the Paris Archery World Cup. She along with Ankita Bhakat and Komolika Bari clinched the Gold medal in the Women’s team recurve finals against Mexico. Followed by a Recurve Mixed team gold alongside her husband Atanu Das. Lastly, she clinched a gold medal in the women’s individual recurve finals against Mackenzie Brown in the finals.
It will be a huge boost to Deepika’s confidence to enter the Tokyo Olympics as the highest ranked archer in her discipline. Deepika Kumari who is a two time Olympian did not have a great time at the London 2012 or even at Rio 2016. In both times, she returned empty-handed and it is something that she desperately wants to change in Tokyo.
“Our country, in archery… it doesn’t have any Olympic medals. It’s very important to win Olympic medals, so it’s very important to me,” Deepika Kumari told World Archery.
Among the Men’s contingent, Deepika Kumari’s Mixed team partner and husband Atanu das is ranked ninth in the world rankings, which is the highest for any Indian in the Men’s discipline. His teammates Tarundeep Rai and Praveen Jadhav are 58th and 41th ranked in the world respectively.
However, apart from Deepika Kumari, only Atanu Das, Parth Jadhav and Tarundeep Rai have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.
Apart from the three gold medals at the Archery World Cup in Paris, India’s compound archer Abhishek Verma shockingly clinched Gold. Verma who was considered the underdog ahead of the finals against United States’ Kriss Schauff. It was a nerve wracking final where the Indian held his nerve better than Schauff to clinch the Gold medal.
After winning the Gold in the World Cup in Paris Verma moved up 14 places to the eighth position in the men’s compound rankings. Among Women in the compound rankings, India’s Jyothi Vennam is the highest at 17th position.
