Tokyo Olympics: Deepika Kumari to face Bhutan's Bhu Karma in 1st round of individual archery event

India archer Deepika Kumari who will be seeded 9th in the women's individual event will now face 56th placed Bhu Karma from Bhutan in the first elimination round.

After finishing 9th in the women's individual archery ranking round Deepika with a total score of 663, India's World no. 1 will now clash with Bhutan's Bhu Karma in the first round on July 28. Bhu Karma, a Rio Olympian, is 193rd in the world rankings. She shot her personal best of 616 at the Yumenoshima Ranking Field on Friday.

If Deepika progress into the quarterfinal of the event, she might face top seed An San from South Korea on July 30. An San created a new Olympic Record score of 680 on Friday and is in sublime form. She shot 36 10's and 16 X's to break the record of Ukraine's Lina Herasymenko (673, in 1996).

The other Korean duo of Jang Minhee (677) and world record holder Kang Chaeyoung (675) were second and third, with Alejandra Valencia of Mexico on 674.

Deepika had a decent start to match as the archer accumulated 56/60 in the first round and 55/60 in the second which landed her in the 10th position in the field. In the third round, the Indian archer gathered X-X-9-9-9-9 for a total of 56 as she continued to stay in the top 10.

The World No 1 had a major disappointment in round 4 as she slipped down to 14th with X-X-8-8-8-7 for a score of 51. But she soon roared back in the next round with her highest score in the match, X-10-10-10-10-9 for a total of 59. Notably, none of the archers at that time had shot a 59 round. Deepika then proceeded to climb to 4th at the end of the first half with a brilliant X-10-10-9-9-9 for a total of 57.

At the starting of the second half, Deepika slipped to 8th after scoring 55 and 53 in the first two rounds respectively. Deepika continued her trend of falling short off a little in the final shot in the third end of the second half too as the archer recorded X-X-10-10-9-7. Kumari then followed with a much-needed 58 and a disappointing 53. In the last set, she managed, X-10-9-9-9-7 to finish in the top 10.

The Indian men's trio of Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai, and Pravin Jadhav will take the field next for the men's ranking round.

( With inputs from ANI )

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