Komalika makes final, eyes successive world championship titles

Wroclaw, Aug 12 (PTI): Promising Indian archer Komalika Bari, who is the reigning under-18 recurve world champion, remained in hunt for a successive title at under-21 level by sailing into the final of the Youth World Championships here on Thursday.
In the compound section, Priya Gurjar and Sakshi Chaudhary led the show in the cadet and junior competition to advance to their respective finals.
Overall, India assured themselves five medals in the biennial meet, while they also remained in line for two bronze medals.
Returning to junior age group two years after she became cadet world champion in Madrid, Komalika dropped two sets before beating Casey Kaufhold of USA 6-4 (28-27, 25-28, 28-26, 25-30, 29-25). The sixth seed Komalika will take on fourth seed Elia Canales of Spain on Sunday in her bid to become junior world champion and emulate the feat of Deepika Kumari.
World number one Deepika is the only Indian to have won successive cadet and junior titles (in Ogden 2009 and Legnica 2011).
“I will try to get the gold medal to have a complete collection. I feel ready to fight for it in the final,” the Jamshedpur-born Tata Archery Academy archer said.
The 19-year-old, who is also part of the Indian senior team, described her five-setter win over the Tokyo Olympics-returned American as a tough one.
“It was a very close match and she is really strong. She has just come from the Olympics in Tokyo. She is a great archer.”
Having got two byes, Komalika defeated Japanese Juri Shibuya 6-4, Kazakh Ziyodakhon Abdusattarova 6-0 and Mao Watanbe of Japan 6-5 (8-7) in the shoot-off to make the last-four.
In the compound junior women’s individual section, eighth seed Sakshi pipped American Anna Scarbrough 144-142 to set up a final clash against Amanda Mlinaric of Croatia.
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