The Indian men’s compound archery team reached the final of the team event at the World Cup for the second time this season, after beating hosts Korea in the semi-final of the Stage 2 event in Gwangju on Wednesday.
The win ensures another compound World Cup medal for India and they will take on the French team for the gold on Saturday in a repeat of the Stage 1 final last month in Turkey.
The women’s team meanwhile claimed bronze after beating Turkey 232-231 in the playoff to open India’s tally.
Abhishek Verma, Aman Saini and Rajat Chauhan combined to come up with an upset win over traditional powerhouses United States 234-228 in the quarterfinal, setting up a clash against the formidable Koreans – Jong Ho Kim, Yong Hee Choi and Jae Won Yang – in the last four.
India took a slender one-point lead at the end of End 1, 59-58, but the Koreans came back to level the match and then take a two-point 176-174 lead after End 3. In the last End though, the Indians fought back to score 59 to Korea’s 57 and level the match at 233-all, taking the match into a shoot-off.
The Indians held their nerve in the shoot-off, scoring 29 to Korea’s 26 to earn a shot at the gold.
On Thursday, it will be a repeat of the final from last month at the World Cup Stage 1 event in Antalya, where India had beaten France 232-230 to take gold.
Women’s team wins bronze
The Indian women’s team of Avneet Kaur, Muskan Kirar and Priya Gurjar lost their semi-final to South Korea 228-230, but still had a shot at winning a medal in the bronze medal match.
In the playoff, they beat Turkey 232-231 to earn the third spot on the podium.
“We feel very good. It’s a proud moment for our country. The wind is very tricky so we tried to shoot our best. At the next stage we will try to go for gold,” Gurjar said to World Archery.
“It means a lot to us,” Kirar added. “We knew it was going to be a tight match and we were separated by only a point. We told ourselves we had to shoot a 60 in the last end.”
On Tuesday, here’s how the qualification rounds panned out:
The recurve qualification rounds took place on Wednesday and once again Tarundeep Rai, Ridhi Phor topped the respective categories for India. The duo had won the mixed team gold in Antalya.
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