Ace Indian archer Deepika Kumari lost her quarter-final match against top-seed San An of Korea in straight sets (6-0) in women’s individual archery event on Friday. That defeat ended Deepika’s journey at Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Deepika had a poor start to the match, beginning with a lowly 7. And while she did score 10s in her following attempts, San An had already accumulated 30 points in the first set.
Deepika started the second set with a 10, but faded further after getting two 7s. She completed the second set with just 24 points, compared to An’s 26. It was the same old story in the final set. San An scored 26 while Deepika managed 7, 8, 9 to finish the set with 24 points.
San An’s form at the ongoing Summer Games has been breathtaking, to say the least. She has already won two gold medals in Women’s Team and Mixed Team events, and is the favourite to clinch gold in individual category as well.
At just 20 years of age, An made headlines when she created a new Olympic record with a score of 680 points in the qualifying. She surpassed the previous figure of 673 points scored by Lina Herasymenko of Ukraine.
Earlier in the day, Deepika made a winning start, having comprehensively beaten Ksenia Perova of Russian Olympic Committee in the pre-quarterfinals. The game needed a shoot-out to decide the winner as scores were tied at 5-5 after five sets. She was helped by the Russian who could only hit a 7 in her attempt. In response, the Indian archer scored a perfect 10 to advance.
With that being said, all eyes will now be on Atanu Das, who is the only Indian archer left in the individual category. The 29-year-old caused an upset on Thursday, July 29 when he defeated former Olympic gold medalist Jinhyek Oh of Korea in the pre-quarterfinal. Next up for the Indian archer is a stern test against Takaharu Furukawa of Japan in the quarter-final.
Featured photo: Instagram / Deepika Kumari
