Deepika stunned at Nationals, out of Shanghai World Cup squad

“I had nothing to lose against them. All three of them have shot at the Olympics so there was no pressure on me. But it was good to come out on the winning side,” she said after her win ensured her maiden entry in to the senior team.

Also making the cut was Madhu, representing Punjab, who won the bronze medal after defeating Reena Kumari 6-0. Earlier, Bombayla lost to Praneetha in the quarterfinal 6-4 and Rimil Buriuly was beaten by identical margin by Madhu.

In the men’s recurve section, Rahul Banerjee made a comeback to the Indian team at the expense of Atanu Das. Banerjee, who trained with former India coach Dharmendra Tiwary at the Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur before the tournament, beat Tarundeep Rai 6-0 to win the individual gold. Jayanta Talukdar won the bronze after blanking Viswash 6-0. Banerjee had earlier defeated Taludar in the semi-final 6-0.

However, not all is lost for the archers. Since the Archery Association of India (AAI) had already decided to send a different team to Archery World Cup Stage 2 in Medellin, Columbia, Deepika and others who are still in the top-eight rank will be selected.
Deepika to leave camp

Interestingly, Deepika Kumari is leaving the National camp to go back to train with the Tiwary in Jamshedpur and so is Talukdar. While Deepika wants to stay there for a month, Talukdar will be there for a 10-15 days. Deepika, who has been laid low by a wrist injury and dip in form since the start of this year, has been wanting go back to train with Tata coaches.

Squads: Recurve men: Rahul Banerjee, Jayanta Taludar, Viswash, Tarundeep Rai; Recurve women: Madhu, N Lavanya, Laxmi Rani Majhi, V Praneetha; Compound men: Ch Jignas, Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chouhan, Khyam Bahadur Chhetri; Compound women: V Jyothi Surekha, Trisha Deb, Gagandeep Kaur