Archery
Archery World Cup Florida: Indian compound mixed team advance to the final
This was the first mixed team compound event since the announcement of its debut at the LA Olympics.
Rishabh Yadav and Jyothi Surekha Vennam
The Indian compound mixed team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Rishabh Yadav made a brilliant start to the year, making it to the final of the first World Cup Stage of the year in Florida, USA.
This was the first international event of the mixed team compound category since the announcement of its debut at the LA Olympics in 2028.
The Indian pair showed excellent shooting and reached the final with a dominating 159-155 over Slovenia in the semifinals. They maintained their lead throughout the match and just missed the perfect 160 by one point.
Earlier, the fifth-seeded Indian team first took down Spain and then the experienced fourth-seeded Denmark to book their spot in the semifinals, shooting a decent score of 156 in both rounds.
They will now take on Chinese Taipei, who claimed a shoot-off victory in their semi-final match, in the gold medal match on Saturday.
Quarterfinal exit for Recurve Mixed Team
Meanwhile, it was not a good day for the Indian recurve mixed team of Dhiraj Boomadevera and Anshika Kumari, who lost their quarterfinal match (2-6) to Spain's Elia Canales and Pablo Acha.
However, they started the day brilliantly and took a dominating 5-1 win over the Italian pair in the round of 16. But, they couldn't maintain that in the next round and, with a few mid-30 scores, lost to Spain.
Dhiraj Boomadevara into recurve semi-final
Dhiraj left behind his mixed team disappointment and reached the semi-final of the individual men's recurve event with a close (6-4) win over Thomas Chirault of France in the quarterfinal.
Earlier, he edged past his compatriot Atanu Das in an all-Indian pre-quarterfinal match to reach the final eight, whereas Deepika Kumari had a quarterfinal exit, losing 2-6 to Casey Kaufhold of the USA.
Dhiraj and Deepika were the only Indian archers in the quarterfinals after the second-round exit of Tarundeep Rai, Ankita Raina, and Anshika Kumari. Meanwhile, Parth Salunkhe and Simranjeet Kaur exited in the first round.
