Archery World Cup: Compound archers confirm 2nd medal

Paris, June 24

Indian archers assured themselves of a second medal in the World Cup Stage 3 with the duo of Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam sailing into the compound mixed team final here today.

A day after Deepika Kumari and Co. cruised into the final of the recurve women’s team event to confirm India’s first medal of the meet, the compound mixed pair of Verma and Jyothi followed suit, defeating Estonia’s Robin Jaatma and Lisell Jaatma 156-151 in the semifinals.

The Indian duo will face fifth-seeded France in the final tomorrow.

Making a comeback after more than seven months, world No. 3 Jyothi is also in the hunt for an individual medal. A day after Lisell gave Jyothi a tough fight in the individual quarterfinals, the Estonians slipped behind early on as the Indians had a perfect first round.

Maintaining their consistency, Verma and Jyothi extended their lead to five points in the third round that proved decisive, even as their rivals levelled it 38-38 in the final set of arrows.

Having got a bye into the pre-quarters, third-seeded India began their mixed team campaign by eliminating Puerto Rico by a handsome eight-point margin (158-150).

In the quarters, the Indians faced their stiffest challenge from El Salvador’s Roberto Hernandez and Sofia Paiz, who stretched it to the shootoff.

But they kept their nerves to oust their 11th-seeded opponents, drilling in an X which made the difference in the shootoff after their final scoreline read 155-155 (19-19).

A new-look recurve mixed pair of Tarundeep Rai and Ankita Bhakat, however, made a first-round exit when they lost to the lower-ranked Kazakhstan 4-5 (34-36 37-33 37-35 35-36) (18-20) in a shootoff.