Archery World Cup: Compound archers one win away from WC Stage II glory

PTI

Yecheon (S Korea), May 22

The world No. 1 Indian women’s compound team stormed into the final of the archery World Cup Stage II but the men’s team will return empty-handed after losing the bronze medal clash to Australia here today.

The trio of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Swami, which had clinched gold medal in the World Cup Stage I in the Shanghai leg last month, knocked out world No. 4 USA 233-229 in their semifinal.

India will now clash with world No. 7 Turkey in the gold medal clash on Saturday. Turkey had stunned top seeds and local favourites South Korea 234-233 in the other semifinal.

It was an overall easy sailing for the women’s team, which got a bye into the quarters after finishing second in the qualifying round. They eliminated Italy 236-234 in the last-eight.

The world No.1 men’s team of Priyansh, Prathamesh Fuge and veteran Abhishek Verma, who had slipped to fourth in the qualifying round on Tuesday, lost to lowly-ranked Australia 133-133 (10-10*) in a shoot-off.

World No. 21 Aussies took the Indian trio by surprise starting with a 59, dropping just one point.

Having started their campaign with an easy 235-212 win over lowly-ranked Vietnam, India overcame tough competition from Denmark and top seed USA, winning both the matches in the shoot-off.

Meanwhile, the veteran duo of Tarundeep Rai and Deepika Kumari finished fourth and sixth in their respective qualifiers as the recurve competition got underway.

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