Asian Games: Deepika qualifies 17th in individual recurve, women team 7th

Deepika, former world number one, had a fruitful first half and at one stage she was going strong at number eight but the disastrous last shot in the 10th set denied her a top-10 finish. Deepika scored just 19 points in the 10th set. She was consistently scoring between 28s and 30s before that. 

With 22 Ten’s and 10X’s scores, Deepika finished the 72-arrow competition with 649 points. Other Indians in fray, Promila Daimary was 21st with 642 points while left-handed Ankita Bhakat qualified 36th with 617 points.

Laxmirani Majhi, the fourth Indian in the mix, was placed 44th from among 66 archers, who qualified. “I could have been in top-10. It is important to get good rank because that helps you avoid match with tough archers. But I can’t think of that shot now. It was not that I lost focus. It was just a loose shot. It happens,” Deepika said after the ranking round.

“Now I have to focus on the next one. ‘Jo gaya, so gaya’ (whatever has happened is past now). I can’t bring that arrow back,” she said. 

“Whatever the conditions, I am trying to score anything between 28-30 in each set because the competition is very tough now. It is difficult to be consistent but I try push myself.” 

India’s national recurve coach Sawaiyan Manjhi said Deepika was fit and there was no health concerns. 

“She was hitting 30s in the beginning, so it means she has recovered from fever. Deepika was going strong but you may have noticed that wind was causing problem to all the archers towards the end,” Majhi, who is the lone recurve coach with the team, said.

Talking about the rankings, Manjhi said, “It’s (seventh) not a great rank but our team is strong and I am hopeful of a strong performance. 

“We always tell archers, live in the present. That’s important.”

With an aggregate total of 1908 of best three individual archers, India’s team ranking was seventh with 1908 points. Formidable Korea, expectedly, topped with 2038 points, followed by Chinese Taipei (2010) and China (1960). 

India will play Mongolia in the round of 16 and is likely to face Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals. India has not won a medal in the last three editions of the Asian Games.