KOLKATA: Deepika Kumari was on way to a podium finish as she entered the women’s recurve semifinals of the Archery World Cup Stage 3 in Paris on Wednesday.
The Jharkhand archer, who qualified as second seed, thrashed Elena Tonetta of Italy 6-0, got past Germany’s Charline Schwarz 7-3, before making the semis blanking Mexico’s Aida Roman 6-0.
Her teammate Ankita Bhakat too put up a strong display before being knocked out by Russia’s Elena Osipova 2-6 in the pre-quarterfinals.
However, Deepika’s husband Atanu Das was knocked out in the pre-quarterfinal going down to Jack Williams of the USA in the tie-break 6-5 (9-8).
Das’s Olympic-bound teammate Pravin Jadhav too perished at the same stage losing to Patrick Huston of Great Britain 6-2.
Tarundeep Rai fell a round earlier to Nicholas d’Amour of Virgin Islands in the tie-break 6-5 (10-9).
Earlier the Indian men’s and women’s compound archers, returning to international action after two years, ended sixth in the team qualification rounds.
Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam emerged the best placed Indians with their respective 11th and 15th place finishes in the men’s and women’s individual category.
The two-time World Cup champion Verma logged 706 points.
Aman Saini was next best at 21st place (704) and was followed by Rajat Chauhan’s lowly 42nd (697) place finish.
In the mixed pair event, Verma and Jyothi are placed ninth and will get a bye into the last-16 where they will face eighth-ranked Russia.
In the individual category, Jyothi shot 695 points to take 15th place while Saanchi Dhalla (690) and Akshita (681) occupied the 22nd and 32nd places respectively.