Star archer Deepika Kumari led the show with supreme authority to grab a hat-trick of gold medals as India made an unprecedented clean sweep at the World Cup Stage 3 here today for a perfect build-up to the Tokyo Olympics.
In the absence of the world No. 1 South Korea, the Indians faced little challenge to win the women’s individual, team and mixed pair events, with Deepika a constant in each of them, playing back-to-back four matches in less than five hours.
“This is going to take Deepika to the number one spot in the world rankings on Monday,” World Archery had tweeted on its official handle after Deepika’s gold rush.
Deepika first combined with Ankita Bhakat and Komalika Bari to notch up the women’s recurve team gold with a comfortable win over Mexico.
She then paired up with husband Atanu Das and the couple from a 0-2 deficit to down the Netherland’s Sjef van den Berg and Gabriela Schloesser 5-3 for the gold medal.
The Ranchi archer then blanked 17th ranked Russian Elena Osipova 6-0 to cap a perfect three out of three in the recurve women’s section, her fourth individual World Cup gold medal.
Overall, she has nine gold, 12 silver and seven bronze medals in the World Cup.
“This is the first time I’ve won all three medals in a World Cup. I’m really happy but at the same time, I’ve to continue improving as we have some very, very important competitions lined up,” Deepika had told reporters after her triumphs.
Deepika had become only the second Indian woman after Dola Banerjee to grab the numero uno status in June, 2012 after claiming her first individual recurve World Cup gold medal at Antalya, Turkey.