Battling gusty winds under floodlights, Deepika Kumari was not at her best but the world number one archer kept the Indian medal hopes alive by sailing into the pre-quarter finals of the women’s individual section at the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday.
On a day her teammates Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav exited in round two, Deepika survived some anxious moments before getting past US teenager Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez 6-4 to sail into round three.
Deepika’s husband Atanu Das is the only other Indian left in the fray. The India No 1, who slipped to 35th place in the ranking, begins his campaign against Deng Yu-Cheng of Chinese Taipei in his opening round of 64 match on Thursday.
Deepika, who qualified as ninth seed in the ranking round, had a facile 6-0 win over world number 193 Karma of Bhutan in a low-scoring opening round match.
Returning to action in less than an hour under lights at the Yumenoshima Park, Deepika felt the pressure early on as she started off hitting the red-circle, managing a poor 7 to lose the first set by one point (25-26).
But she bounced back strongly, firing in three 10s in a row to usurp a 4-2 lead. She, however, failed to wrap up the match in the fourth set, misfiring a 6 in her second arrow.
The 18-year-old American made it 4-4, winning the set by one-point (25-24). In the winner-takes-all fifth set, Deepika had two 9s to start with before finishing with a poor 8.
Needing a 10 in her last arrow to force a shoot-off, Jennifer signed off with a nine in what was a promising campaign for the American teenager.
“Maybe I was nervous and was not able to adjust to the tricky wind conditions,” Deepika said after the hard-fought win.
“I tried very hard and that was the reason I could not get consistent scores.”
Deepika will have two day’s break before gearing up for her big day on Saturday when the women’s individual medals will be decided.
Her round-three opponents will be decided on Thursday and her bracket includes world number 8 Ksenia Perova (Russian team Silver medalist in Rio 2016) and Maja Jager of Denmark (the 2013 World champion) who are headed for a potential round-two clash.
Earlier in the day, 37-year-old Rai lost to Itay Shanny of Israel in a tight shoot-off finish for a heartbreaking second round exit in his last Olympics. Rai’s Army colleague Pravin Jadhav also suffered a round-two loss as the duo failed to negotiate gusty wind conditions here.