Deepika makes quarter-final exit at archery World Cup

A day after her world record equalling feat, Deepika Kumari made a shock quarterfinal exit on a forgettable day for the Indians in the individual events of the Archery World Cup first stage at the Yuanshen Stadium here on Thursday.

The top seed Deepika, who got a bye into round three following her world record of 686 in the qualification round started off well with two easy wins but stumbled against Maja Jager 4-6 for an abrupt end to her glorious run in the women’s recurve individual.

Besides Deepika, Laxmirani Majhi and Jayanta Talukdar too made quarterfinal exits in their respective events and none of the Indians remain in medal contention in the individual events.

The Indians will now bank on the team events and mixed pair competition.

Having started off with an easy 6-0 win over Veronika Haidn Tschalova of Germany, Deepika got past Cui Yuanyuan of China 7-1 but found the going tough against the Danish girl.

Locked 2-2, Jager won third and fourth ends to take a 6-2 lead. Deepika recovered in the fourth end but it was too late by then.

Deepika’s teammate Laxmirani Majhi was also in fray in the quarters but lost to Tan Ya-Ting of Taipei 2-6, while Rimil Buriuly had a first round exit losing to Kim Chaeyun 1-7 of Korea.