Archery World Cup: Mixed team compounds joy, Deepika Kumari in semifinals

Yecheon (S Korea), May 24

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Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Priyansh advanced to the compound mixed team final, confirming India’s second medal, while Deepika Kumari brightened the country’s gloomy recurve campaign as she reached her second successive Archery World Cup semifinals after her comeback in the Stage 2 of the event here today.

The compound women’s team of Jyothi, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Swami had assured India’s first medal by making the final on Wednesday.

Young compound archer Prathamesh Fuge is also eyeing a medal as he advanced to the semifinals in the individual category.

The Indian compound mixed team, No. 2 in the world rankings, dropped just two points from 16 arrows to eliminate the host country’s duo of Han Seungyeon and Yang Jaewon 158-157 in a tight semifinal.

Jyothi and Priyansh will face USA’s Olivia Dean and Sawyer Sullivan in the gold medal match today in a clash of the top-two world ranked nations.

The fourth-seeded Indian duo earlier ousted Vietnam 159-152 in the first Round-of-16 clash, missing the target only once from 16 arrows.

India then thwarted some strong resistance from fifth seeds Mexico to win 156-155 in an intense quarterfinal.

Former world No. 1 Deepika, who is making a return to the International circuit after embracing motherhood in December 2022, secured four back-to-back wins to enter the last-four stage and remained the only Indian recurve archer in the medal hunt.

Deepika will face home favourite and world No. 2 Lim Sihyeon in Sunday’s semifinal, four weeks after the rising South Korean 20-year-old won the Shanghai Stage 1 gold by in a ruthless straight-set victory.

Starting at fourth in the qualifications, Deepika overcame early jitters when she pipped Slovenian teenager Tinkara Kardinar in the shoot-off after being 1-3 down in a dramatic first-round clash.

In other recurve individual results, Bhajan Kaur lost in the first round, while Ankita Bhakat could not cross the second-round hurdle. Veteran Tarundeep Rai and Mrinal Chauhan suffered first-round exits, while Dhiraj Bommadevara and Pravin Jadhav fell short in the second round.