Rio Olympics: Archer Deepika shines in women’s individual event

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 11 (IANS) India's Deeipika Kumari defeated Guendalina Sartori of Italy in the 1/16 eliminators of the women's individual archery competition of the ongoing Rio Olympics here.

Deepika displayed red hot form to claim a 6-2 win and move into the pre-quarterfinals at the Olympic Shooting Centre here on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old from Ranchi had shaky start, shooting mediocre scores of seven and eight points with her first two attempts before coming up with a nine in her third.

The Italian on the other hand, enjoyed a superb start with nine points in all her three attempts to take the first set 27-24. Clinching a set brings two set points to the winning archer.

Deepika found her rhythym in the second set with attempts of 10, 10, 9 to take the set 29-26 and draw level.

Sartori meanwhile, seemed to be waver a bit although she did manage a 10 in her third attempt.

The archer from Ranchi continued her superb form in the third set as well, notching up a total of 28 points with attempts of 10, 9, 9. Sartori (10, 8, 8) could only manage to score 26 points.

In the fourth and final set, both archers started off with identical eight point attempts before Deepika scored perfect 10s with her next two attempts to take the set and the match.

Earlier, Deepika defeated Kristine Esebua of Georgia in the 1/32 eliminators.

Deepika, placed 12th in the world rankings, displayed excellent form to defeat the higher ranked Esebua 6-4.

Deepika dominated proceedings right from the start. Starting with a mediocre eight pointer with her first attempt, she scored 10 and nine points in the next two.

The World No.8 Georgian could only manage attempts of 8,9,9 as Deepika took the opening set 27-26 and the subsequent two set points with some ease.

The Georgian did better in the second set. Both archers scored identical attempts of 10, 10, 9 to split the set points with the overall set points score reading 3-1 in favour of Deepika.

Deepika displayed outstanding marksmanship in the third set with 10 pointers in all her three attempts to increase her lead.

Not to be outdone, Esebua shot 10, 9, 10 in the next set as Deepika could only manage three 9s to hand the set to the Georgian by a 29-27 margin thus forcing the issue into a fifth set.

Both archers shot identical 10, 10, 9 in the final set to split points at 29-29 which settled the matter in favour of the Indian.