The Indian men’s and women’s recurve team won a bronze medal each at the ongoing 2023 Archery World Cup Stage 4 in Paris on Thursday.
While the men’s team comprising of Atanu Das, Dhiraj Bommadevara, and Tushar Shelke breezed past Spain 6-2 in the bronze medal match, the Indian women’s team staved off a stiff challenge from Mexico to win 5-4.
Jyothi Surekha Vennam was the only compound archer to reach the semi-finals in the individual events on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the second seeded Indian men’s team recieved a bye in the first round before defeating Mexio 6-0 in the next round.
The trio of Das, Bommadevara, and Shelke then went past Canada 5-1 before losing to a raging Chinese Taipei 0-6 in the semi-finals.
On the other hand, the sixth seeded women’s team of Bhajan Kaur, Ankita Bhakat, and Simranjeet Kaur too lost to Chinese Taipei 0-6 in the semi-finals. They had earlier defeated Japan 6-2 and Italy 5-1 in the pre-quarters and quater-finals respectively after having received a bye for the first round.
Earlier on Wednesday, Bommadevara had finished as the highest ranked Indian in the men’s individual qualification round in the fourth spot with a score of 686. Das finished sixth with 684 while Shelke (664) was placed 53rd.
Meanwhile in the women’s section, Bhajan (662) was the highest ranked Indian in 17th place while Simranjeet (659) and Bhakat (658) finished 21st and 23rd respectively.
In the individual compound events, Vennam, who won gold at the Antalya World Cup, was the only Indian to reach the semi-final where she will face Great Britain’s Ella Gibson. The pair had met in the final at the same venue last year where Gibson had triumphed.
Gibson reached the semi-final after beating Aditi Gopichand Swami 148-135 in the quarter-final. Swami, in turn, had beaten compatriot Parneet Kaur 146-141 in the second round. Avneet Kaur also exited at the second round after losing 147-146 to Malaysia’s Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh.
In the men’s individual event, Shanghai World Cup winner Prathamesh Samadhan Jawkar was the best performing Indian archer after reaching the quarter-final where he lost to Austria’s Stefan Heincz 147-140.
While Medellin World Cup winner Abhishek Verma and Rajat Chauhan lost in the second round, Ojas Pravin Deotale lost in the first round.
Vennam, Jawkar and Verma, by virtue of winning World Cup stages, have already qualified for the World Cup Final which will be held in Hermosillo, Mexico on September 9-10.
Winners in the four World Cup stages - Antalya, Shanghai, Medellin and Paris - gain direct entry to the Finals with the other available spots being awarded according to the athletes’ ranking points.
Swami, by winning 14 World Cup Ranking points in Paris, is in a good position to finish in the top 8 with 38 points and make it to the World Cup finals.
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