Paris Olympics 2024: Deepika Kumari progresses, Tarundeep Rai loses

India’s top female archer, Deepika Kumari, came good in the individual events after faltering in the women’s team events when she entered the pre-quarterfinals at the Paris Olympics 2024.

Deepika, who is playing her fourth Olympics, would love to go farther than her best finish, a quarterfinal appearance at the Tokyo Olympics.

In her first match, Deepika beat Reena Parnat of Estonia 6-5 in a shoot-off and later came back to beat Quinty Roeffen of the Netherlands 6-2 in her round-of-32 match at Les Invalides.

Deepika will face Germany’s Michelle Kroppen on Saturday. Along with Deepika, Bhajan Kaur, who progressed to the last-16 on Tuesday, will meet two-time Asian Games medallist Diananda Choirunisa of Indonesia.

Deepika, a former World No. 1, was taken the distance by Parnat as both archers took five set points apiece after five sets.

A shoot-out was imminent and Parnat managed to score eight while the four-time Indian Olympian scored nine. Earlier, the Indians scored three consecutive 10-pointers to take the match to a shoot-out.

Her next match against Roeffen of the Netherlands was a far more straightforward affair, as the Indian took the upper hand and only gave away two set points to her opponent to triumph 6-2.

Roeffen also had a few eight point shots and even less and that helped Deepika’s cause too.

In the men’s individual round-of-64 match, four-time Olympian Tarundeep Rai lost 4-6 to Great Britain’s Tom Hall.

Rai, the senior archer in the Indian camp at 40 years old, shared the spoils after the first set but lost the second to train 3-1. He came back to win the third set and level it a 3-3 but with Tom winning the fourth set, a draw in the fifth was enough for the Great Britain archer to progress.

The fifth set, as Tom expected, was a tie, with both archers hitting two 10-point shots.