SHANGHAI: India's most decorated archer, Deepika Kumari, salvaged her pride with a hard-earned bronze medal after a semi-final heartbreak, while Parth Salunkhe also finished on the podium for the first time as India wrapped up their campaign at the Archery World Cup Stage 2 with seven medals, here Sunday.
A day after compound archers put up a dominating show with five medals, Deepika and Salunkhe added two more from the recurve section to end India's campaign on a high.
Exactly a year after the 21-year-old reigning Olympic champion Lim Sihyeon had knocked Deepika out at the same stage of the Yecheon World Cup, the Indian was undone again by the Korean in the semi-final, losing 1-7 in a largely one-sided women's recurve individual contest.
The 30-year-old four-time Olympian, though, bounced back strongly to defeat another Korean, Kang Chae Young, 7-3 in the bronze medal playoff and return with a consolation podium finish.
Deepika's win took India's overall medal tally to six at the event, with five coming from the compound section on Saturday that included a remarkable triple-medal haul by comeback archer Madhura Dhamangankar.
In the men's section, 21-year-old Salunkhe, who qualified lowly at 60th place, impressed with his resilience after a 1-7 loss to top seed and Korean legend Kim Woojin in the semi-final.
After taking just one point off multiple Olympic medallist and reigning champion Woojin in his semi-final loss, Salunkhe bounced back impressively to beat higher-seeded French archer Baptiste Addis 6-4 in a tense five-setter to earn his maiden World Cup medal.
Salunkhe began in style with a flawless 30, including an X, to take the opening set. He slipped in the second, hitting an 8 that led to a 28-all tie. The third set was a scrappy affair, both archers managing just 25.
Addis then raised his level with a perfect 30 to level the match 4-4.
But the young Indian held his nerves in the decider, shooting two 10s, one of them an X, and a 9 to edge out Addis by a point.