Deepika bags silver in archery World Cup

Kolkata: India's Deepika Kumari went down to China's Cheng Ming 5-6 in the tie-breaker of the women's individual recurve summit clash at the World Cup archery finals in Istanbul Sunday.

The 17-year-old Indian lost the first set but recovered to win the next two to lead 4-2 in set points. The fourth set went to Cheng. Tied 4-4, the two archers went into the decisive fifth set only to share the set points at 5-5. The contest now rolled to a one arrow shoot-off in which the Chinese scored a 9 as against the Indian's 8 to win a dramatic game, according to information received here.

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Earlier, Deepika had overcome Berengene Schuh 6-0 to enter the final. She had defeated Alejandra Valencia of Mexico 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

It was a very good start for the Indian and the Chinese archers in the World Cup title race. Each got ten points in the first two arrows. Cheng made the decisive shot with a 9 while her opponent only got an 8. The score was 2-0 for the Chinese.

Cheng started the next set with 10-9 and needed an 8 to win the set and lead 4-0. But she released a very bad shot that scored 6. Deepika was happy to take the two points at stake and tie the match 2-2.

In the third set, the Indian took advantage of a 7 by Cheng to take the lead for the first time in the match at 4-2. The third set was reversed with Deepika shooting a 7 at her first arrow. Cheng won set and came back 4-4.

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The Chinese then opened the final set with a 6, but followed it up with two 10s to just clinch a tie (26-26). The match was thus tied as well at 5-5.

Cheng shot first in the tie-break and scored a good 9 close to the 10-ring. The 17-year old Deepika needed a 10 to win but she could not hold the pressure and finished with an 8.

Berengene took the bronze beating Korean youngster and top seed Jung Dasomi 6-2.

The men's title went to World No. 1 archer Brady Ellison of the US. He defeated Dia Xiaoxiang of China 6-2 in the final.