National Archery Championships: Dhiraj, Deepika claim titles in recurve archery

National Archery Championships: Dhiraj, Deepika claim titles in recurve archery

New Delhi: Star Indian archers Deepika Kumari and Dhiraj Bommadevara emerged as the winners at the National Archery Championships in the women’s and men’s individual recurve events, respectively. The duo also played crucial roles in helping their respective team clinch medals at the Gopal Maidan in Jamshedpur on Friday.

In the men’s individual event for the gold medal match, Olympian Dhiraj, who was representing the Services Sports Control Board, prevailed over Haryana’s Divyansh Chaudhary without much hurdles by a 6-2 margin. It would be much booster for the Andhra-born archer with his recent achievement at the national level after missing out on progression in the Paris Olympics by the barest margins.

Dhiraj and Divyansh shared the first two sets before the experienced campaigner fired shots in the 10-mark to move ahead of his younger opponent and eventually claimed his maiden national title. It was the lack of experience for the 18-year-old Divyansh as he couldn’t focus once found trailing in the final, and hence, couldn’t match the challenge posed by Dhiraj.

Later in the day, Dhiraj was involved in Services’ team settling for a bronze medal after defeating Rajasthan 5-4 in a shootout. Railways defeated Haryana by a comfortable scoreline of 6-2 to win the team event gold.

In the women’s individual final, four-time Olympian Deepika, who donned the shirt of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB), Deepika fought back to make a stunning comeback against youngster Ankita Bhakat to claim the title by a 6-2 margin.

Deepika also partnered husband Atanu Das to help PSPB lift the mixed team gold after the couple defeated Punjab’s Aditya Chaudhary and Simranjeet Kaur.

Jharkhand women team led by Ankita trounced Madhya Pradesh 5-3 in a contest fought by tooth and nail from both teams. Maharashtra defeated Railways by a margin of 6-2 to achieve the bronze in women’s team event.

(Note: All these competitions were held in the recurve archery category)

 Star Indian archers Deepika Kumari and Dhiraj Bommadevara emerged as the winners at the National Archery Championships in the women’s and men’s individual recurve events, respectively. The duo also played crucial roles in helping their respective team clinch medals at the Gopal Maidan in Jamshedpur on Friday.  Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today