Kolkata, July 20, 2009:
Deepika Kumari of India won the cadet recurve women’s gold medal to emerge as the World champion. Sanjay Boro too won the bronze medal play-off to occupy No. 3 position in the cadet recurve men’s event of the 11th Youth World Archery Championship at Ogden (Utah) in the U.S. on Sunday.
This was the second time that India was winning a World title in archery. Palton Hansda won it for the first time in 2006 at Merida (Mexico) by winning the junior compound individual gold medal in the ninth edition of the world championship.
Dola Banerjee had emerged the champion of the World Cup in 2007 but winning the title at the World Championship was the greatest honour for an archer.
Cadet category is for archers under the age of 16 and junior category is for those under the age of 18.
Deepika, a tribal girl from Jharkhand, and a product of Tata Archery Academy at Jamshedpur, was consistent throughout the championship. The fourth-seeded Indian had scored 115 out of 120 in the quarterfinals, 112 in the semifinals and in the final 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 the most productive for the small Indian contingent at the venue, Sanjay Boro from Assam and seeded seventh 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 one gold and two bronze medals as against two silver medals in 2008 at Kundu-Antalya (Turkey). The Indian contingent had won one gold and three silver medals, by far the best haul, at Merida (Mexico) in 2006.
Deepika was unstoppable since the moment she shot her first arrow into the nine ring. The first end of thee arrows fetched her 29 points, the second end of three also earned her 29. Only in the third she shot two 9s and a 10 for 28 points but by then she had 6 point lead (86-80) going into the last end of three arrows. A 9, 10, 10 by the Indian ensured the historical finish.
Source: Indian Archery Association press release
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