Image Courtesy- India Today
World number one archer Deepika Kumari defeated 2017 world champion Ksenia Perova of the Russian Olympic Committee in a thrilling shoot-off to enter the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics women’s singles category. After five sets the score was tied at 5-5. Deepika, battling the pressure well, scored a perfect 10 in the shoot-off and defeated the team silver medalist of the Rio Olympics. Starting in an arrow shoot-off, the Russian archer came under pressure and could only score seven while Deepika scored ten to win the match by 6-5.
This is Deepika’s first win in three matches against the 2017 world champion. Deepika, who is playing Olympics for the third time, became the first Indian archer to reach the last eight of the Olympic archery event. In the quarter-finals, Deepika will face Korea’s An San, who came defeated Japan’s Ren Hayakawa by 6-4 in her last match.
In the ranking round, Korea’s An San broke the 25-year-old Olympic record and scored a perfect 10 on the last three arrows. Deepika and Ann San had faced the same venue in the Tokyo 2020 Test Tournament in 2019 but the Indian player had to face defeat in that game.