Archery World Championships: Indian women’s compound team in final, men falter in quarters

The Indian women's archery team put the nation on a pedestal when they stormed into the final of the Archery World Championships in scintillating fashion at Yankton on Wednesday.

The Indian women's compound archery team comprising Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Muskan Kirar and Priya Gurjar brought on their best game when it mattered. In the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the championship, they beat Great Britain and the USA respectively.

The Indian women's compound archery team will meet Colombia in the final on Thursday.

Jyothi Surekha, Muskan and Priya were on the money. The trio defeated second seed Great Britain 30-28 in a shoot-off after both teams were tied on 230 points each after four sets.

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The Indian compound archery team started well by beating Denmark 235-226 in the first round to move to the quarter-finals. There they were met with stiff resistance from Great Britain.

The Indian trio shot three 10 pointers in the shootout with utmost precision to put the pressure on Great Britain. The third seed eventually succumbed to the pressure and lost the quarter-finals.

In the semi-finals, India were trailing USA for the first three sets with scores of 57-56, 57-58, 56-54 and finally took off in the last set, scoring 58 to end up one point higher than the USA who managed just 55 in the last set, courtesy of a horrid eight-pointer.

Indian men's compound archery team falters

However, it wasn't a case of a happy ending for the Indian men's compound archery team as the Indian trio were ousted in the quarter-finals.

The Indian men’s compound archery team of Abhishek Verma, Sangampreet Bisla and Rishabh Yadav won their first round match against Italy 236-230 to move into the quarter-finals.

Meeting Austria in the quarter-finals, the Indian compound archery team did not live up to their expectations and lost in a high scoring thriller 235-238.

The Indian compound archery team were put on the backfoot at the start when Austria started off with a perfect 60 off the first six arrows. India almost equalized but fell short by one point in the end to finish the first set on 59.

The Austrians continued the good work and scored another 60 off the next set while the Indian archery team could only manage 58.

Both teams scored 58 in the third set and the three-point advantage for Austria remained in the end when both teams scored a perfect 60 in the last set.

Meanwhile Natalia Avdeeva of Russia and Abhishek Verma of India have been elected to World Archery’s athletes’ committee after participants voted during the World Archery Championships.