Archery World Cup: Indian compound archers bag a silver and a bronze

The Indian compound archers bagged a silver and a bronze medal to open the country’s account at the Archery World Cup Stage 2 in Antalya, Turkey on Friday. The women’s compound team comprising Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Muskan Kirar and Divya Dhayal had to settle for the silver medal after going down 228-231 to Chinese Taipei in the final.

Later in the day, India added a bronze medal to their kitty when the mixed compound team of Surekha and Abhishek Verma put up a sterling performance to beat Belgium 158-155.

India have a chance of increasing their medal tally as the recurve women’s team of Deepika Kumari, Promila Daimary and Ankita Bhakat too reached the bronze medal play-off. They will be in action against Chinese Taipei on Saturday.

In swirling conditions, the Indian women’s compound team struggled to be accurate with their arrows while the Chinese Taipei archers were better suited to the conditions. They built an advantage of 59-57 on conclusion of the first end and never relinquished the lead since.

By the end of the second end, they had the match firmly in their grip with a five-point lead over Indian at 117-112. Jyothi Surekha looked the best of the trio in the summit clash and she carried that form into the mixed team bronze medal match.

The Indian duo of Surekha and Verma had lost to eventual gold medallists France in the semi-finals and they came absolutely prepared to take home the medal. With the wind having died down, the Indian archers did not face much difficulty and stormed out to a 39-37 lead when the first end finished, which they extended to 79-75 by the end of the second end.

The Belgians made a strong comeback after that, producing a flawless 40 in each of the next two ends but it was not enough to overtake the Indians, whose level never dipped.