On the first day of the archery competition at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday, world No. 1 Deepika Kumari finished slightly outside the top eight in the women’s individual ranking round.
Deepika, who had the best score of 686 at an international event and the best score of 690 on the home circuit at the Games trials, finished ninth with 663 points. In the next round, she will play Bhutan’s Karma, and in the quarters she may face An San.
After the first six rounds, the ace Indian archer had a total of 334 points, with her weakest (51) and best (59) rounds coming in the fourth and fifth rounds, respectively.
She continued to play well after that, rising to sixth place after shooting a 58 in the tenth round. However, scores of 53, her only round without a ten, and 54 in the final two rounds pushed her back a little, allowing her to finish with 329 points in the final six rounds.
The Koreans, who had avoided international tournaments in the run-up to the Olympics, once again demonstrated their superiority by taking the first three spots.
An San (680), Jang Minhee (677), and Kang Chae-young (675) finished first, second, and third, respectively, with a team total of 2032 points, breaking previous Olympic records, including Lina Herasimenko of Ukraine’s individual record (673) set in 1996 and Korea’s women’s team record (675) set in 2008.
Two Mexicans, Alejandra Valencia (674) and Aida Roman (673), were also among the top eight finishers (665).
