Deepika Kumari and company keep Indian archery on target in 2013

KOLKATA: India's golden girl Deepika Kumari led the women contingent to a new height stunning world champions Korea in the World Cup, while the relatively new compound archers too emulated their recurve teammates in what turned out to be a good year for Indian archery.

It was an out and out women's show as the recurve team of Deepika, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Rimil Buriuly clinched two World Cup golds, while the men's team struggled to get their combination right and continued to tumble without a single medal at the highest level.

The biggest headline-grabbing moment of Indian archery came in August when the women's trio stunned reigning Olympic champion Korean team by a four-point margin in the World Cup Stage 4 final in Wroclaw, Poland in a historic feat.

It was the Indian women team's second World Cup gold medal this year after a similar achievement at Stage 3 in Medellin, Colombia where they had beaten China in the gold medal clash.

Compound archers too got inspired by the feat as the team of Abhishek Verma, Ratan Singh Khuraijam and Sandeep Kumar grabbed the headlines in October by upsetting the world champions Koreans to claim the team gold at the Asian Archery Championships in Taipei.

"This year is entirely dedicated to compound archers in view of their brilliant performance in all international competitions attended during 2013 which is a good sign for the preparation of ensuing 2014 Asian Games, Incheon where Compound event has been included for the first time," President of Archery Association of India (AAI) Vijay Kumar Malhotra said.

This was for the second time that India team had won the Asian Champions title in compound men category.

Compound men and women teams had won gold and silver medals respectively and I R Sanam had occupied the top slot on the podium in the 16th Asian Championship, Bali in 2009 which was the best ever results achieved by compound archers.