Archery World Cup: Recurve men's team reach final, mixed day in compound
Indian recurve men's team reached final while Jyothi and Priyansh progressed to semis of compound at the Archery World Cup.
Recurve Men's team into final at Shanghai World Cup, China (Photo Source: Pravin.archer)
The Indian recurve men's team reached the final of the Archery World Cup, while it was a mixed day for the compound individual event. Aditi Swami and Abhishek Verma exited early, whereas Jyothi Surekha and Priyansh progressed to the semifinals on Thursday.
The Indian men's recurve team, consisting of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Rai, and Pravin Ramesh Jadhav, had a remarkable performance in the elimination round. They secured a spot in the final with three consecutive wins.
Starting slowly in the pre-quarters and trailing 1-3 against Indonesia, they made a comeback to win two back-to-back ends, clinching the match 5-3. They didn't look back after that early scare, securing two comfortable 5-1 wins in the following rounds against Spain and Italy, respectively.
India entered the knockout rounds as the second seed and maintained their performance, reaching the final with an impressive average score of over 55. In the final, they will face the tough South Korean team, vying for the title on April 28th.
Contrary to the men's success, the women's recurve team continued their disappointing performance, suffering another early exit in the round of 16, losing 3-5 to Mexico. The trio of Ankita Bhakat, Deepika Kumari, and Bhajan Kaur shot low scores of under 53 in three out of the four ends, contributing to their defeat.
The compound archers had a mixed day, with two of India's top archers, Abhishek Verma and world champion Aditi Gopichand Swami, suffering early exits, while Jyothi Surekha in women's compound and Priyansh in men's made it to the semis.
Priyansh pulled off a big upset by knocking out the world no.1, Mike Schlosser of the Netherlands, in a shootoff (149(10)-149(9)) at the pre-quarterfinals. He followed this up with another shootoff victory (145-145(20-19)) over Türkiye's Batuhan Akçaoğlu to reach the semis.
He will face Nick Kappers of the USA in the semis on April 27th. Nick reached the semis after a 148-147 win over another Indian, Prathamesh Fuge, in the quarterfinals.
Seasoned Indian archer, Jyothi Surekha Vennam, began another Archery World Cup series on a high note, making it to the semis at the first world cup of the season. She defeated her compatriot Avneet Kaur (143-142) in the quarterfinals.
The second-seeded Indian archer will face Estonia's Meeri-Marita Paas in the semis. The 22-year-old Estonian had a very good run at the tournament so far, defeating several experienced archers en route to the semis.
Meanwhile, Abhishek Verma lost his second-round match to French archer Jean Philippe Boulch in an intense battle, where Jean shot a perfect 150 compared to Abhishek's 148, while Aditi lost to the top-seeded Mexican, Andrea Becerra, in a low-scoring quarterfinal (142-144).