Archery World Championships: Three Indians sail into quarterfinals

Yankton (USA), September 24

Indian archers Ankita Bhakat, Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam kept medal hopes alive in the individual competition by advancing to the quarterfinals of their respective events in the World Championships here.

India have already confirmed two medals by entering the compound women’s and mixed finals.

In the individual recurve event, Ankita produced the biggest upset when the 23-year-old Kolkata archer held her nerves to eliminate South Korean world No. 4 Kang Chae-Young, a team Olympics gold-medallist at the Tokyo Games.

Ankita dropped just one set to defeat the South Korean heavyweight 6-4 (29-28, 28-28, 27-27, 24-29, 29-28) and set up a quarterfinal clash with Casey Kaufhold of the USA.

Verma and Jyothi also advanced into their respective last-eight rounds.

Reigning World Cup gold-medallist Verma had two perfect rounds as he beat Jozef Bosansky of Slovakia 145-142 (29-28, 30-27, 28-29, 30-29, 28-29).

The former Asian Games team champion will face American world No. 1 Mike Schloesser.

Jyothi showed the door to South Korea’s Chaewon So 146-142 (30-29, 29-29, 28-30, 29-29, 26-29). Jyothi will face Croatian Amanda Mlinaric, the reigning under-21 world champion. — PTI