The Indian women's recurve team of Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat and Simranjeet Kaur finished with the silver medal after going down to Chinese Taipei in a one-sided final at the World Cup Stage 3 in Paris on Sunday. India concluded their campaign with one gold and two silver medals -- two of them coming in the compound section.
The women's recurve team, who bagged a lowly 13th seed after the trio slipped out of top-30 in their individual qualification rounds but managed to reach the final, eventually lost to Chinese Taipei 5-1 (53-56 56-56 53-56) in straight sets.
With Rio Olympics team bronze medallist Lei Chien-Ying in the line up, third seed Chinese Taipei mounted early pressure with two 10s and four 9s as India shot a 7 in the first set that proved to be the turning point. The Indian trio bounced back to level the second set but that was not enough as it again slipped in the third set, while Chinese maintained their consistency to seal the gold.
Nevertheless it was a memorable return for top compound and recurve archers, Deepika Kumari and Jyothi Surekha Vennam, and not making the initial team during the selection trials for the now postponed Asian Games. Jyothi led India's medal tally with one gold (mixed team event with Abhishek Verma) and one silver (individual) on Saturday while Deepika, who was sidelined following her Tokyo Olympics debacle, returned with a team silver.