Star compound archer Jyothi fails to qualify for Asian Games

Four-time world championship silver medallist archer Jyothi Surekha Vennam produced a below-par effort and failed to secure a berth in the Indian women's compound team for the Asian Games at the ongoing selection trials on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old Andhra archer, who won team silver and bronze medals in the 2014 and 2018 Asian Games, struggled to judge the wind direction and was the first to exit from the elimination round. At her expense, Avneet Kaur topped the elimination round to make the cut from the women's half for the Asian Games, scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China from September 10-25. From the remaining six, three will make the cut on Wednesday's round robin matches.

The men's section, however, did not see any surprises as 2014 Asian Games gold medalist Abishek Verma finished on top to seal his berth. In the recurve section, three of the Tokyo-returned Olympic quartet -- Atanu Das, Deepika Kumari and Pravin Jadhav -- could not advance from the trials that began here on March 7.

Picking the team six months' in advance in a precision sport like archery may have sounded strange. But a selection committee member defended the decision as they wanted to have the core group ready. "The four archers who fell behind may still get a chance if there is a difference of more than 10 points between the archers," the official told PTI.

"The youngsters are faring really well. Jyothi has dipped in form but she will get a second chance if she improves." The same team will also go for the three World Cup legs -- Antalya (April 17-24), Shanghai (May 15-22) and Paris (June 19-26) -- preceding the Asian Games in September.