World number one archer Deepika Kumari beat former world champion Ksenia Perova of the Russian Olympic Committee in a thrilling shoot-off to advance to the women’s individual quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics on Friday.
Locked 5-5 after the regulation five-setter, the 27-year-old Indian held her nerves in the shoot-off to deliver a perfect 10, hitting the bull’s eye, to topple the Russian, a team silver medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Starting off the one-arrow shoot-off, the Russian crumbled under pressure as she misfired a seven while a composed Deepika sealed the issue 6-5 (10-7) without any fuss.
For the three-time Olympian Deepika, this was her first win from three matches against the 2017 world champion as she became the first Indian to make the last-eight stage in an individual event of the archery competition in the Olympics.
The Indian will meet Korea’s An San in the quarterfinals. San has already won two gold medals in Tokyo in the women’s Team and Mixed Team event.