By SUNIL Sonkar

October 10 — Archer Deepika Kumari becomes star with the claim of gold medal on Sunday in the women’s recurve individual event at the XIX Commonwealth Games New Delhi.

The 16-year-old girl from Ranchi maintained her cool composure at the Yamuna Sports Complex even in the windy conditions and thrashed Olympic bronze medallist Alison Wiliamson for the gold medal in straight sets (6-0).

India has so far won two gold medals in archery. The first gold was in the women’s trio event of Deepika, Dola and Bombayala Devi Laishram.

Earlier today, the most experienced player of India, Dola Banerjee, settled down for bronze in archery. Dola is a Double Olympian and winner of 2007 World Cup finals.

Poornima Mahato, the coach of women’s team, said to the media after the claim of gold medal by Deepika, “The wind was blowing from right to left very strongly, something that did Dola in. I asked Deepika to maintain her cool and not to get disturbed by the wind factor. She did just that. I am so happy for her.”

Deepika is a daughter of an autorickshaw driver and recently she had won silver medal at the World Cup stage 4 last month in Shanghai.

For her triumph, today, she credited her parents and coaches at the Tata Archery Academy. She said, “I am over the moon. I am thankful to my parents, coaches who have supported through out.”