Deepika, Verma, Divya enhance India's medal prospects

Deepika Kumari revived India's medal hopes topping the qualification round in the women's recurve section while Abhishek Verma and Divya Dahal advanced to compound mixed pair bronze medal play-off match at the Archery World Cup Stage II, here today.
Having made a quarterfinal exit at the World Cup Stage I in Shanghai, the former world number one, Deepika put up a consistent display with 34 perfect 10s to total 672, five points ahead of Chinese Taipei's Peng Chia-Mao to beat the top seed and will begin her campaign from the last-32.
Deepika's teammates Monika Saren and Preeti finished 31st and 45th respectively as the team ranked fifth in the draw of 16.

In the men's recurve category, Dhaniram Basumatary was the best placed Indian at seventh with 667, two points ahead of Olympian Atanu Das who finished 13th.
The third Indian Indrachand Swami finished 25th as the team bagged third place in the qualification ranking.
Deepika and Dhaniram, however, made a first round exit going down to Belarus in the mixed pair event later in the day.
In the compound mixed pair section, Verma and Divya will battle for bronze medal against Italy's Sergio Pagni and Marcella Tonioli after they lost the semifinal to their opponents from Chinese Taipei 152-155 in a closely-fought battle.