Archery
Jyothi Surekha secure top-10 seeds in Archery World Cup Stage 3 qualifiers, Sahil exits early
Sahil Jadhav secured 10th place in compound qualification but suffered a narrow first-round defeat, while Jyothi Surekha Vennam finished seventh in the women's rankings.
Jyothi Surekha Vennam becomes the first archer to win three individual titles at the Asian Championships. (Photo Credits: SonyLiv)
Indian compound archers Sahil Jadhav and Jyothi Surekha Vennam secured top-10 finishes in the qualification round of the Archery World Cup Stage 3 in Antalya, Turkey, on Tuesday, although Sahil's individual campaign came to an early end in the knockout stage.
Fresh from winning his maiden World Cup medal in Shanghai last month, Sahil continued his strong form by shooting 710 points to finish 10th in the men's compound qualification rankings. Seven archers finished on the same score, but the Indian was placed 10th based on X-count.
However, Sahil was unable to build on his promising qualification performance and was knocked out in the round of 64 after a narrow 147-145 defeat to Mexico's Juan Gutierrez on Tuesday morning.
Austria's Nico Wiener topped the men's qualification standings with 714 points. Among the other Indians, Rishabh Yadav finished 22nd with 706 points, while Asian Games-bound archers Ganesh Mani Ratnam Thirumuru and Kushal Dalal placed 33rd and 43rd respectively.
Jyothi leads Indian women as teams secure strong seeds
In the women's compound event, veteran Jyothi Surekha Vennam emerged as India's highest-ranked archer after scoring 700 points to finish seventh overall.
Chikitha Taniparthi followed in 10th place, while Parneet Kaur was ranked 18th with 693 points. Seventeen-year-old Prithika Pradeep finished 22nd among the field.
India have adopted a strategy of fielding the archers selected for the 2026 Asian Games in team events throughout the World Cup season. As a result, Jyothi, Chikitha and Prithika will form the women's team despite Parneet recording a higher qualification score than Prithika.
The Indian women's compound team secured the second seed behind Mexico and advanced directly to the quarter-finals, where they will face either Italy or the United States.
India's men's compound team earned the third seed and will begin its campaign against Singapore.
In the mixed team event, Sahil and Jyothi combined to give India the fifth seed. The pair received a first-round bye and advanced directly to the pre-quarterfinal stage despite Sahil's early exit from the individual competition.