Juyel, Deepika take recurve golds; Karnataka to clash with TN for men’s tennis team title

Juyel Sarkar wins men's archery gold, Deepika Kumari takes women's gold at National Games; Karnataka and Maharashtra dominate tennis.

West Bengal’s Juyel Sarkar surprised Olympian Tarundeep Rai and won the men’s individual recurve archery gold in the National Games at the Rajiv Gandhi cricket stadium here on Thursday.

Juyel defeated Services’ Indra Chand Swami 6-4 in the title-decider while Olympian Taruneep Rai took the bronze.

Meanwhile, Olympian Deepika Kumari lived up to expectations, taking the women’s gold with a 6-4 victory over Bihar’s talented youngster Anshika Kumari 6-4.

“This is my second National Games gold but I’m not very happy, I could not get the scores I wanted,” said the 30-year-old Deepika.

She was impressed with the juniors who are coming up, including the 18-year-old Anshika.

“The juniors are motivating me to perform better and the competition is getting tougher day by day,” she said.

In tennis, No. 1 seed Karnataka and second-seeded Tamil Nadu will clash in the final of the men’s team event while the top-seeded Maharashtra will play Gujarat in the women’s final.