Deepika Kumari becomes World No 1 archer in women’s rankings after Paris win

Deepika Kumari will be India's top bet to win a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in the sport of archery following her astonishing performance in the Archery World Cup in  Paris. The ace archer completed her hat-trick of gold medal at the event on Sunday by winning the Recurve individual event by 6-0. The hattrick of medals in Paris also made Deepika Kumari the world number one archer in individual recurve Women as per the latest rankings of World Archery.

World Archery rankings: Tokyo Olympics

Going by the current standing Kumari is at the top of the table with 263.7 points. She is followed by Lisa Barbelin from France with 225.5 points, while Kang Chae Young of South Korea is third with 208 points to her name. Kumari will be the lone female archer in full men's team at Tokyo Olympics as India look to win their first archery medal at the world's biggest sporting event. Speaking about the prospect of winning a medal in Tokyo, Kumari said “Our country, in archery… it doesn’t have any Olympic medals. It’s very important to win Olympic medals, so it’s very important to me.”

World No. 1 archer rankings: A look at Deepika Kumari's performance at Paris 

Kumari securing an automatic entry in the Archery World Cup Final with her first-place finish at stage one in Guatemala City at the beginning of the season. With her victory in Paris, a fourth points slot will open up for an archer to compete in the season finale in September. The archer won the first gold medal in the competition came in the women's recurve team. Apart from the ace archer, the team comprised of Komalika Bari, and Ankita Bhakat.

The team defeated Mexico 5-1 in the finals to take home the gold. The 27-year-old won her second gold medal in the mixed team event where she paired with her husband Atanu Das. The pair won their first World Cup gold medal beating the Dutch pair of Gabriela Schloesser and Sjef Van Den Berg by 5-3 after a set down. Deepika completed her hattrick of medals by thumping Russian, Elena Osipova  6-0 in the Recurve individual event. This is also Deepika's second individual World Cup Gold medal of 2021. Following the win Kumari said I’m happy, but at the same time I have to continue my performance like this. I want to improve that, because the upcoming tournament is very, very important to us. I’m trying my best to continue learning whatever I can.”

Image: World Archery / Twitter