Archer Deepika Kumari will face Bhutan’s Bhu Karma in 1st round of individual archery events after she got team India’s Olympic campaign off to a flying start on Friday, finishing 9th in the ranking round. Kumari scored 663 with 72 shots in the ranking round of the women’s individual competition. 

Each archer shot 72 arrows at the target from a distance of 70 meters. The 72 shots are taken over the course of 12 rounds, with an archer getting two minutes in each round to fire six arrows. An archer can achieve a maximum of 10 points on each shot. The rankings determine who the archers face in round one. The first ranked participant goes up against the archer who finished 64th. The archer in the second position faces the 63rd ranked athlete and so on.

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Later on Friday, the trio of Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav and Tarundeep Rai will be in action in the men’s individual ranking event.

Kumari made her first mark in archery when she won the 2009 Youth World Championships as a 15-year-old. She went on to bag two gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi next year.

But in London Olympics 2012, she made a first-round exit as a full-strength Indian side failed to make an impact, and the outing was no better in Rio de Janeiro four years later.

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Competing in her third successive Olympics, two-time world No. 1 Deepika has seen it all, from the lows of London to hitting rock-bottom at Rio 2016.

The firebrand archer will be hoping to change her fortunes and cash in on her form this year. She has already won five World Cup gold medals in recent times.

The 27-year-old’s biggest challenge would be to overcome the Koreans, who are both mentally and physically strong.

“It’s very important because Indian archery does not have an Olympic medal so I want to win,” Deepika had said ahead of the Games.