India have been assured of a second medal at the Archery World Cup Stage 3 after the compound archery mixed team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Abhishek Verma reached the final on Friday.
Seeded third after the qualifiers, Vennam and Verma recieved a bye into the second round where they secured a comfortable win over Puerto Rico.
In the quarter-final, the pair took on a high-flying pair of Roberto Hernandez and Sofia Paiz from El Salvador. The Salvadorian pair had pulled of a stunning upset in the second round when they shot two Xs in their shootout win over sixth seeds Netherlands.
Against India, the Salvadorians once again forced a shootout after four tightly contested ends finished 155-155. However, they were unable to repeat their heroics from the Dutch win as India progressed to a semifinal clash against seventh seeds Estonia.
Vennam and Verma found their best form in the semis notching a comfortable win and assuring themselves of a medal.
The Indian pair will face the fifth-seeded French pair of Sophie Dodemont and Jean Philippe Boulch in the final on Saturday. The French made it to the final after beating top seeds Britain via a shootout in a tightly-contested clash.
Earlier in the day, the recurve archery mixed team of Ankita Bhakat and Tarundeep Rai were knocked out in the first round by Kazakhstan.
Leading 4-2 after three sets, the Indian pair narrowly lost the fourth set forcing a shootout. The Kazakh pair shot perfect 10s to knock India out.
In the recurve individual elimination matches, no Indian archer (male or female) made it to the final four. Veteran Jayanta Talukdar came mighty close to massive upset, but was at the wrong side of a shootoff for the second consecutive World Cup against Korean superstar Kim Woojin.
Indian matches over the weekend (live on Sony Sports Network in India):
Saturday, Compound mixed team final: India vs France around 3 pm IST.
Saturday, Compound women’s individual semifinal with Jyothi (and a medal match to follow): 5.40 pm IST onwards
Sunday, Recurve women’s team final: India vs Chinese Taipei, around 1.30 pm IST.
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