Paris Olympics 2024 Archery: Deepika Kumari enters Round of 16
India's women's archer Deepika Kumari secured a victory against the Netherlands' Quinty Roeffen in their Round-of-32 encounter on Wednesday, July 31. The former World No. 1 from India comfortably beat Roeffen 6-2 to secure a place in the last 16.
Kumari suffered a scare earlier in the day against Estonia’s Reena Parnat. She barely made it through after shooting an eight in the shoot-off.
The match against Roeffen commenced with Deepika opening with two 10s and a nine, setting a high standard. Roeffen, not far behind, managed two nines and a ten. However, Deepika’s one-point advantage helped her to take the first set 29-28.
In the second set, Roeffen mirrored Kumari’s performance from the first set by scoring two perfect 10s and a nine. Deepika on the other hand managed only a trio of nines helping the Dutch archer win the set 29-27, leveling the match at 2-2.
The third set saw Deepika start with her fourth successive nine while Roeffen completely missed the target, basically conceding the set to Kumari. Capitalizing on this, Deepika added another nine and, despite a seven on her final shot, clinched the set 25-17, putting her ahead 4-2.
The fourth set saw Roeffen falter with a low score of seven and six in her first two shots. Deepika, starting with a perfect 10, followed it up with two nines to secure the set and match. Despite a strong finish from Roeffen with a 10, it wasn't enough to make any difference. Deepika secured a 6-2 victory in the match to make it to the last 16.
Earlier in the day, Deepika Kumari narrowly edged past Estonia’s Reena Parnat in a tense match. After the five sets ended in a 5-5 tie, the match went to a shoot-off. Kumari shot a mere eight, but Parnat misfired to shoot an eight too. Kumari’s arrow was closer to the center by 13.732 cm, allowing her to advance to the next round.
Bhajan Kaur also through to the last 16 at the Paris Olympics 2024
Earlier on Tuesday, July 30, India’s 18-year-old archer Bhajan Kaur put on an impressive performance at the Paris 2024 Olympics, overcoming Indonesia's Syifa Kamal and Poland’s Wioleta Myszor in the first and second rounds, respectively.
Kaur secured a narrow 7-3 victory against Kamal in a fiercely contested match and then delivered a commanding 6-0 win over Myszor. She is set to compete against Indonesia's Diananda Choirunisa in the Round of 16 match in the women's individual event.