Paris [France], July 31 : Following a clinical display with her bow, India's seasoned archer, Deepika Kumari, joined fellow archer Bhajan Kaur in the Round of 16 of the women's individual recurve event in the ongoing Paris Olympics.
Deepika kept hopes alive for a medal in archery with some scintillating shots in the elimination round. Unlike her clash against Reena Parnat in the previous round, Deepika enjoyed a much more comfortable outing against Dutch archer Quinty Roeffen. She wrapped up the game in four sets and secured her berth in the Round of 16 with a 6-2 win.
Deepika commenced the round in a similar fashion, hitting two 10s in her first two shots. She finished off the first set with a nine and secured 29 points, while Quinty was able to get 28.
Quinty bounced back in the next set, hitting back-to-back 10s in her first two shots. Deepika could only pull off 9s in all three of her shots, which restored parity at 2-2.
In the third set, Quinty moved towards defeat when she failed to put a single point on the board in her first shot. Deepika capitalised on the opening, took away the third set and went ahead with a scoreline of 4-2.
Quinty lost her momentum and scored 7 and 6 in her first two shots. Deepika has joined Bhajan Kaur in the next round of the women's individual recurve event.
Before making her way into the next round, Deepika ousted Estonian archer Reena Parnat in a closely fought contest in the previous round.
Deepika began the proceedings with two 10s in her first two shots and followed it up with a 9. Reena replied with a single 10 and lost the first set by one point.
Reena fought back in the second set by a margin of one point to level the contest at 2-2. The third set ended in a draw, with both archers accumulating 27 points each in their three shots.
In the fourth set, Deepika stood on the verge of crashing out of the competition after hitting a 7 and 8 in her first and second shots. Reena capitalised on the opening and went ahead in the tie by 5-3.
In the do-or-die situation, Deepika showed her prowess and struck three 10s and Reena couldn't match the intensity of the seasoned Indian archer.
The game went to shoot-off and both archers struck 8 in their only shot. Deppika's arrow was closer to the centre, which allowed her to move into the next round.
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