World Archery C’ships 2023: Jyoti Vennam leads Indian compound women’s team to final

The Indian trio of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur, and Aditi Gopichand Swami made their way into the final of the women’s compound team event at the ongoing 2023 World Archery Championships in Berlin on Wednesday.

They defeated the Colombian women’s team, led by Sara Lopez, 220-216 in the semifinal.

In extremely windy conditions which made shooting tougher, India started off well with a score of 59 in the first series of six shots. The Colombians, on the other hand, could manage only 55.

While both teams shared the honors in the second End with a score of 58 apiece, the Indians faltered in the next End. They dropped two eight pointers as they not only surrendered the third 51-55 but also helped Colombia equalise at 168-168 with just six arrows left.

With a place in the final at stake, the Indians held their nerves to edge out their opponents 52-48 in the final End and knock them out 220-216.

“This result was not expected. The match was played in extremely windy conditions which made the competition tougher, but we are happy with the result,” said the 16-year-old Aditi to World Archery after the win.

Vennam, Kaur, and Aditi now have history in sight and could become the first archers from the country to be crowned world champions when they go up against Mexico in the final on Friday.

“This will be India’s first World Championships gold when we win on Friday. We will focus on doing our best and take home the gold,” said Vennam, who herself has four silver and two bronze medals from the global event, to World Archery.

The Indian men’s compound team of Abhishek Verma, Ojas Deotale, and Prathamesh Jawkar crashed out in the quarter-finals with a 230-235 loss to the team from Netherlands.

In the recurve section, the Indian men’s team lost 1-5 to South Korea in the quarter-finals while the women were beaten 2-6 by the Dutch at the same stage.