Picture Credit: Twitter
Star Indian archer Deepika Kumari is all set to make an India comeback in the upcoming Stage 3 of the World Cup beginning in Paris on Tuesday (June 21). After failing to win a medal at the Tokyo Games, Deepika Kumari will make an attempt to redeem herself in this world event where she won the individual gold last year.
The 28-year-old who has also won a World Cup Final silver medal in 2013, will look to add some motivation before Olympics which are slated two years later at the same venue. Notably, Deepika returned empty-handed from her third Olympics campaign last year as she saw a decline in form along with her husband and country's top male archer Atanu Das.
The duo also failed to qualify for the team for the Asian Games which was later postponed by the Archery Association of India, which conducted a fresh trial of the top-eight archers for Stage 3 of the World Cup. Earlier the same squad was to compete in both the World Cup Stage 3 and the Asian Games but after the postponement, Deepika and Pravin Jadhav, who were in the top 8 of the earlier conducted trial, got a fresh opportunity and made the cut.
Deepika made the cut at the expense of Komalika Bari, while her Tokyo Olympic mixed team partner Jadhav ousted Sachin Gupta to complete the World Cup Stage 3 lineup. The last time Deepika was in action for was at the Yankton World Cup final in September 2021 where she finished fourth.
India Team: Recurve Men: Tarundeep Rai, Jayanta Talukdar, Pravin Jadhav and Neeraj Chauhan.
Recurve Women: Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat, Ridhi Phor and Simranjeet Kaur.
Compound Men: Abhishek Verma, Aman Saini, Mohan Bhardwaj and Sangampreet Bisla.
Compound Women: Jyothi Surekha Venna, Priya Gurjar, Avneet Kaur and Muskan Kirar.