Star archer Deepika Kumari led the show with supreme authority to grab a hat-trick of Gold medals as India made an unprecedented clean sweep at the World Cup Stage 3 here on Sunday for a perfect build-up to the Tokyo Olympics in less than a month’s time.
In the absence of the world number one Korea, the Indians faced little challenge to win the women’s individual, team and mixed pair events with Deepika a constant in each of them, playing back-to-back four matches in less than five hours.
India’s Gold rush began with the women’s recurve team of Deepika, Ankita Bhakat and Komalika Bari notching up a comfortable win over Mexico.
Eyeing their first-ever Gold medal together, Deepika and husband Atanu Das, who are India’s best medal hope in archery in the Olympics, bounced back from a 0-2 deficit to down the Netherland’s Sjef van den Berg and Gabriela Schloesser 5-3.
Deepika blanked 17th ranked Russian Elena Osipova 6-0 to cap a perfect three out of three in the recurve women’s section, her fourth individual World Cup Gold medal.
The World No 3 had won it in Guatemala City 2021, Salt Lake City 2018 and Antalya 2012. Overall, she has nine Gold, 12 Silver and seven Bronze medals in the World Cup.
“This is the first time I’ve won all three medals in a World Cup. I’m really happy but at the same time, I’ve to continue improving as we have some very, very important competitions lined up,” Deepika said.