Tokyo: India’s Olympics run commenced with Deepika Kumari’s 9th place finish in the ranking round of the Women’s Archery Individual event.The Ranchi-based archer scored 663 out of a possible 720 points that saw her end up just inside the top 10.
All of the top 3 places were occupied by Koreans, and surprisingly all three of them surpassed the Olympic record score of 673 out of 720 set by Ukrainian Lina Herasymenko way back at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
Kumari now will face Bhutan’s Karma in her Round of 64 knockout match on the virtue of her finish in the ranking event.
Despite scoring 30 10s and 13 Xs on the way to her 9th place finish, Kumari would feel she could have done a lot better as a few 7s and 8s stopped her from finishing much higher.
At the end of the first half, and with 334 points out of 360 that saw her occupy the 4th place, Kumari looked set to build on her impressive end to the first half but a poor 8th set where she scored 53 broke her momentum.
The highlight of Kumari’s performance came in the 5th set right before the end of the first half. She scored a stunning 59 out of 60 with one of her 5 10s hitting the bull’s eye.
Meanwhile, it was a comprehensive first place finish for Korean An San, who looked unbeatable at times. She took the lead in the 3rd set and never came close to losing it for the rest of the event. Following her to finish second and third were fellow Koreans Jang Minhee and Kang Chae Young who scored 677 and 675 respectively.
Two other players considered to be the main competitors to Deepika Kumari, Tan Ya-Ting, and Lei Chin Ying had average days at the office finishing 27th and 30th respectively.
The ranking event was played to determine the seedings for the knockout games. The winner will face the 64th, while the runner up will come up against 63rd, and so on.