Asian Cup Archery: Deepika Kumari strikes recurve individual and team gold on comeback

Deepika Kumari made a stunning comeback to the international yard with two gold medals at the Asia Cup Leg 1 in Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday.

Deepika was playing on the international circuit for the first time since she became a mother of a baby girl in December last year.

The 29-year-old displayed her hunger for success as she first propelled the Indian women's recurve archery team to the gold medal against Uzbekistan before clinching the individual women's recurve gold in an all-Indian final against Simranjeet Kaur.

In the team final, Deepika, who scored 657, paired up with Simranjeet Kaur, who scored 658, to steer India to the gold medal-winning performance along with Bhajan Kaur (655).

The Indian team beat Uzbekistan in the tie-breaker. Ziyodakhon Abdusattorova (637), Nilufar Hamroeva (627) and Jasmina Nurmanova (604) secured the silver medal for Uzbekistan.

Deepika followed it up with the individual gold medal as she beat Simranjeet 6-2 in the final.

This was Deepika's third medal across all events. In November, she won the recurve women’s individual gold at the National Games in Goa, beating Haryana’s Sangeeta, to announce her comeback from a prolonged break. Last month, she topped the national selection trials in Kolkata to get her spot back in the Indian team.

India ended the tournament by winning nine gold medals, four silver and one bronze.

Dhiraj wins three gold

The men's team of Tarundeep Rai, Pravin Jadhav and Dhiraj Bommadevara defeated Bangladesh to win the gold medal, while Dhiraj and Simranjeet paired up to clinch the mixed team gold.

In the men's individual recurve final, Dhiraj propelled 7-3 against Tarundeep to win the gold medal.

Meanwhile, in the compound women's and men's individual events, Parneet Kaur got better of Iran’s Fatemeh Hemmati 138-135 to claim the women’s gold medal match while Prathamesh Jawkar edged past teammate Kushal Dalal 146-144 to grab the men's gold.

On Saturday, Indian men's and mixed compound teams won the gold medals in their finals, while the women's team settled for a silver medal.

On the other hand, reigning world champion Aditi Swami won a bronze medal in the compound women’s individual event as she beat Priya Gurjar 148-145.