Indian archer Deepika Kumari on Wednesday equalled the world record in women's recurve event before helping the country to the mixed pair bronze play-off in the first stage of the Archery World Cup that got underway here.
The former World No.1 and winner of two Commonwealth Games gold medals shot 686 in the 72-arrow ranking round to equal the feat of london Olympics gold-medallist Ki Bo Bae of Korea.
Ki Bo Bae, who had won two gold medals at the london 2012 Olympics in the individual and team competition, had erased an 11-year-old world record when she got past fellow Korean Park Sung-Hyun's 682 at qualification of Universiade in Gwangju in 2015.
Deepika set the range ablaze shooting 346 in the first half and needed just 341 to get past the Korean but two 9s in the last end meant the 2015 record remained intact.
The top seed Deepika will now play round three of last 32 directly, while her teammate laxmirani Majhi who ranked a poor 45 and Rimil Buriuly (75) will start from round one. The women's team is ranked fourth.
Deepika's effort also enabled India to get a top ranking in mixed pair as she partnered 12th ranked Atanu Das (671 points) to defeat Turkey 5-3 in the first round of eight.
Korea were blanked 0-6 by second-ranked USA in the other semifinal. In the men's recurve qualification, Atanu Das, Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia finished among top-20 to hand the team a third place.
India targets 10-plus medals in Rio Oly
The Sports Ministry has set a target of '10-plus medals' at the forthcoming Rio Oly that will see largest-ever Indian contingent of athletes participating.
A Committee set up by the Ministry last year to identify medal prospects had selected 110 sportspersons, of whom 76 have already qualified, Sports Minister Sonowal told the Rajya Sabha. "For the forthcoming Rio Olympics, the Sports Ministry has set a target. The target is set at 10-plus medals," he said in reply to supplementaries on the Ministry's goals for Rio Olympics.