Deepika Kumari Defeats Ankita Bhakat to Bag Gold Medal in Asian Archery Championship 2019 Final, Both Finalists Secure Individual Quota in Tokyo Olympic 2020

Deepika Kumari, an Indian athlete, who competes in the event of archery has won the Gold medal in Recurve Event of Asian Continental Archery Qualification tournament for Tokyo Olympics 2020. Deepika defeated compatriot Ankita Bhakat by 6-0 in the final. India has secured Olympic Quota from the same event. Deepika Kumari and Ankita Bhakat on Thursday, Nov 27, 2019, secured an individual Olympic quota in archery for 2020 Tokyo Games as they made it to the semifinals of the women’s recurve event in the Asian Archery Championships 2019 at Bangkok.

There were three individual places up for grabs from the continental qualifications and Indian archers made a big statement where top-seed Deepika and sixth seed Ankita made it to the last four round to secure an individual Olympic berth. The 25 years old Ranch born Deepika Kumari is currently ranked at No 9 in archery and has also held the first rank position. She has conferred the Arjuna Award, India's second-highest sporting award in the year 2012 by President of India Pranab Mukherjee. She has also been awarded with Padma Shri in the year 2016.

Deepika Kumari Wins Gold Medal in Asian Qualifier 

Karma of Bhutan and Nguyet Do Thi Anh of Vietnam bagged the remaining two individual quota places at the Rajamangala National Stadium. Deepika and Ankita have earned India’s second Olympic quota place in archery after the men’s recurve team of Tarundeep Rai, Atanu Das and Pravin Jadhav had secured the first one in the World Championships earlier this year.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 28, 2019 03:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).