Old is always gold for archer Dipika

For ace archer Dipika Kumari "old is always gold", as the 20-year-old Ranchi girl came out with flying colours in the just-concluded World Cup Stage IV in Wroclaw, Poland after a stretch of poor form forced her to change her bow and re-unite with former coach.
Dipika's decision to move under the tutelage of her childhood coach Dharmender Tiwari and shun the new bow not only helped her regain the lost touch but win three medals in the World Cup, including a gold in the women's recurve team event.
Apart from the gold, Dipika also bagged a bronze each in recurve women's individual event and recurve mixed team pair event along with her partner Jayanta Talukdar.

"Of late I was really struggling with my form. I was World No.1 in 2012 but then moved out of the top-10 rankings. The frequent change of coaches did not help either. The I decided to return to my old coach Dharmender sir, who knows everything about my game. I also started to use my old bow instead of a new one," Dipika told PTI on the sidelines of a felicitation function here today.
"Dharmender sir was the chief coach of Tata Academy so he was hardly associated with the national teams on abroad tours. He got chance to be with the national team in the World Cup and he will also be with us in the Asian Games."

In the World Cup Stage IV in Wroclaw, Indian men's recurve team had to settle for a silver after losing to Mexico 3-5 in the final. Besides, the Indian compound mixed pair of Abhishek Verma and Puvasha Shende also clinched a silver medal.
Having been there earlier Dipika definitely wants to rule the world once again but the present focus for the Indian is the Incheon Asian Games, starting next month.
"It happens in game. It happens in every athletes career. I an presently world no. 14 and obviously want to be World No. 1 again. But all my focus now is on the Asian Games," she said.