Kolkata, Sep 4 (IANS): The Indian men's archery team Saturday won gold in the World Cup archery stage IV meet in Shanghai. The Indians also picked up one silver and a bronze medal.
The men's recurve team, consisting of Jayanta Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee, won the gold medal defeating Japan 224-220.
Teenager Deepika Kumari, however, failed to make history succumbing to the intense pressure of playing her maiden senior final and lost to Korea’s Bo Bae Ki, to settle for a silver.
In the best of five sets final, Deepika went out of the contest after losing the first two sets. Though she tied the third one for a point, the Korean came up with three perfect 10s to seal the victory. The set scores in favour of the Korean were 29-27, 29-27, 28-28, 30-27. Two points are awarded for winning a set and one point for a tie.
Talukdar gave India the men’s individual recurve bronze medal. With two wins and a loss against Athens Olympic champion Marco Galiazzo of Italy, Talukdar comfortably won the fourth meeting between the two. The Indian ended with seven points as against the Italian's three. The set score in favour of Talukdar were 28-29, 30-26, 28-28, 29-27, 28-27.
Deepika and Talukdar also ensured qualification for the Edinburgh World Cup finals Sep 18 and 19. Talukdar will be joined by Brady Ellison (U.S.A.), Galiazzo, Im Dong-Hyun, Kim Woojin (both Korea), Michele Frangilli (Italy) and Simon Terry (Great Britain).
Deepika will be with Bo Bae Kim, Yun-Ok-Hee (both Korea), Guo Faping (China), Victoriya Koval (Ukraine), Elena Kuznetsova (Belarus) and Justyna Mospinek (Poland).
Seven men and as many women have also been selected in the compound bow section. The host will field one wild card entry in each of the four events.
Talukdar has twice entered the final in 2006 and 2009 but failed to win the top place. This is his third entry. Dola Banerjee qualified for the final at Dubai in 2007 and won it. Deepkia is the second Indian woman to make it to the final.