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The Indian men’s and women’s compound teams made it to the bronze medal play-off on an otherwise lacklustre day for India at the Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Shanghai, China on Thursday. The trio of Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan and Chinna Raju Srither was beaten 233-236 by top seeds Korea in the semi-finals.
The Indians, who were the defending champions, will now take on France in the bronze medal contest. France were shown the door 230-233 by Team USA in the other semi-final.
In the women’s section, the troika of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Madhumita Kumari and Kirar Muskan led Russia initially in the semi-final match, but were eventually edged 227-228. The Russians now go on to face Chinese Taipei in the final while India and the Netherlands will fight it out in the bronze medal play-off.
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This is the first major event of the 2018 season for the Indian archers as they gear up for the Asian Games later in the year. However, other than these results, there was not much to cheer about for the Indian contingent as the recurve archers totally disappointed. None of the recurve teams could progress past the quarter-finals.
A lot was expected from the individual section, but the top Indian archers flattered to deceive as nobody managed to make it to the quarter-finals. Former World No. 1 Deepika Kumari was blown away 1-7 by the seventh seeded Chinese Cao Hui in the Round of 16. Eighth seeded Ankita Bhakat was the best performing Indian in qualifying, but she too fell 4-6 to China’s An Qixuan in the same round as Kumari.
On the men’s side, Atanu Das was blanked 0-6 by Indonesia’s seventh seeded Ega Agatha Riau.
In compound archery, 2014 Asian Games silver medallist Abhishek Verma was sent packing 146-150 by Italy’s Federico Pagnoni. Jyothi Surekha Vennam, who was a part of the 2017 World Championships silver medal-winning team, succumbed to a 144-145 defeat to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Ming-Ching.
India will now look to make amends in the mixed team competition, which will be held on Friday.
