Mumbai, July 21: Deepika Kumari has won the cadet recurve women’s individual gold medal in the 11th Youth World Archery Championship at Ogden (Utah) in the USA. Sanjay Boro too won the bronze medal in the cadet recurve men’s event.
This was the third time that India won a world title in archery. Palton Hansda had won it for the first time in 2006 at Merida (Mexico) by clinching the junior compound individual gold medal in the ninth edition of the World Championship. Dola Banerjee achieved the feat in the 2007 World Cup.
Cadet category is for the archers under the age of 16 and junior category is for those under the age of 18.
Jharkhand’s Deepika, a product of Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur, was consistent throughout the championship. The fourth-seeded Indian had scored 115 out of 120 in the quarterfinals and 112 in the semifinals. In the final on Sunday, she shot 115 points to beat her 10th-ranked Russian opponent Sayana Tsyrempilova, who managed 109, according to information received here on Monday.
To make the day a successful for the small Indian contingent, seventh-seeded Sanjay Boro from Assam too showed enough promise early on to win the bronze medal beating 29th-ranked Antonio Hector Smith of Mexico 110-105.
In all, the 29-member Indian contingent won a gold and two bronze medals as against two silver medals in 2008 at Kundu-Antalya (Turkey). The Indian contingent had won a gold and three silver medals, by far the best haul, at Merida (Mexico) in 2006.
–Agencies