Dhiraj Bommadevara, Mrinal Chauhan and Tushar Prabhakar Shelke secured India’s third medal at the ongoing Archery World Cup Stage 3 in Medellin after winning bronze in the men’s recurve team event.
The fourth-seeded trio had reached the semifinal by beating Canada and home side Colombia but lost 6-0 to top seeds Korea in the final four.
However, they bounced back from that defeat to beat China 5-3 in the bronze medal playoff match.
“It’s a very successful team event,” Bommadevara told World Archery. “We are happy but not satisfied, because we are going towards gold medals.”
“From first end, first arrow to last end, last arrow, high scores or low scores, we support each of us very good,” he added. “These are all steps for us, all great learnings.”
Thursday’s bronze was Bommadevara’s second World Cup medal this year after the silver he won with Tarundeep Rai and Atanu Das in Antalya at the first stage.
In the men’s compound event, eighth-seed Abhishek Verma reached the semifinals after beating top-seed Mike Schloesser in a tense shoot-off in the quarterfinals. Both shooters scored 148 after four ends and incredibly, both shot 10s in the shootoff. However, Verma won the tie as his arrow in the shootoff was closest to the center.
Verma, a winner of 16 World Cup stage medals, will face Brazil Luccas Abreu in the semi-final. The Brazilian had defeated India’s Rajat Chauhan in the third round.
Elsewhere in compound men’s individual, Ojas Pravin Deotale and Prathamesh Samadhan Jawkar – both of whom have won medals this season on the circuit – lost in the second round.
There was disappointment in the women’s compound event after an excellent qualification scores on Tuesday. Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Parneet Kaur bowed out in the quarter-finals. While Vennam lost to Alexis Ruiz, Kaur lost to home favourite Sara Lopez. Top seed Aditi Gopichand Swami, who set a new U18 World record in the qualifiers, lost in the third round as did Avneet Kaur.
Friday will see the mixed team events get underway along with the individual events in the recurve.
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