Top woman archer and world no. 3 Deepika Kumari is planning to compete in all the remaining World Cup stages as well as the World Championships in September-October this year. ‘I aim to compete in all. I am going for the World Cup (stage 2) from June 10-16 (in Antalya, Turkey). After that there will be trials and team selection in Delhi for the third and fourth World Cup stages (to be held in Colombia and Poland in July and August respectively),’ said the 18-year-old Ranchi-born archer.
‘After that the top 8 players, depending on the points and rankings after the fourth World Cup stage, will compete in the World Cup finals in Paris (Sept 21-22),’ said Deepika, who has started her season with a silver medal winning effort in the World Cup’s opening stage at Shanghai earlier this month.
Deepika was in fact leading her top Korean rival Ok-Hee Yun before the latter, an individual bronze medal winner in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, overturned the lead and then surged to the gold.
She and teammate Jayanta Talukdar won the mixed team silver after going down to the American pair of Brady Ellison and Katuna Lorig in the duel for the gold. Deepika is focusing mainly on next year’s Asian Games in Incheon, Korea to boost up her confidence before attempting to win a medal that eluded her in the 2012 London Olympic Games.
‘I can’t say now, but we will try our best. It’s a long term process. The Asian Games is there (next year) which is our first focus. If we do well there our confidence level will rise,’ said the young archer when queried about the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.