India’s Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai, Dhiraj Bommadevara reached the final of the men’s recurve team event at the Archery World Cup Stage One in Antalya, Turkey on Thursday.
Also sealing a place in the weekend action was women’s compound top seed Jyothi Surekha Vennam, who made her way to the individual event semifinals.
The Indian men’s recurve team produced a solid run of results to reach the gold medal match where they will take on China on Sunday.
After a shootoff win against Japan in the second round and a 6-2 win against Chinese Taipei in the quarter-finals, the Indian men’s recurve team reached the semi-final where they took on the Netherlands. The Dutch had eliminated top seeds Turkey (who had Olympic champion Mete Gazoz) in the quarter-final.
But after dropping the opening end in the semi-final, the Indians bounced back against the Netherlands to win the tie 6-2 and seal their place on the podium.
Das, who missed the cut for the Indian team last year, made it to the squad after finishing second in the recurve trials held in Sonepat, Haryana in February. He led the charge in the qualification for recurve, earning the fourth seeding overall.
The compound individual eliminations happen later in the day.
The women’s recurve team, however, lost out in the round of 16. Bhajan Kaur, Ankita Bhakat and Simranjeet Kaur defeated Brazil in the second round but couldn’t get past Spain.
In the compound individual events, only Jyothi made it to the final four. There was heartbreak in the men’s events, as three Indians featured in the four quarterfinals and none of them could progress. Rajat Chauhan lost in a shootoff. Ojas Pravin Deotale, who upset the top seed in the round of 16, lost in an incredibly high-scoring quarterfinal as he scored 148 but saw his opponent from Malaysia Mohd Juwaidi Mazuki score a perfect 150.
In the women’s event, Jyothi was the sole Indian representative in the last eight and she made it to the semifinals with a run of solid wins. She will take on world No 1 Ella Gibson in what will be a tough semifinal contest for the Indian.
Jyothi, who got the top seeding after a world record-equalling 713 in qualifying, sailed through with four convincing victories. In the quarterfinal, she defeated Denmark’s Tanja Gellenthein (world No 5) 147-142 to set up a meeting with Great Britain’s star Gibson.
Jyothi told World Archery, “I’m very excited and looking forward to Saturday. The wind was a little bit tricky. I was struggling in the initial matches, but in the last one I shot better and I was happy with my shooting.”
Archery World Cup stage 1 Antalya schedule
Tuesday 18 April: Compound qualifying
Wednesday 19 April: Recurve qualifying
Thursday 20 April: Compound eliminations
Friday 21 April: Recurve eliminations
Saturday 22 April: Compound finals
Sunday 23 April: Recurve finals
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