Indian compound mixed team enters final; Deepika in successive Archery WC semifinals after comeback

Yecheon (South Korea), May 24 (PTI) Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Priyansh advanced to the compound mixed team final, confirming India’s second medal, while Deepika Kumari brightened the country’s gloomy recurve campaign, reaching to her second successive Archery World Cup semifinals after her comeback in the Stage 2 of the event, here on Friday.

The compound women’s team of Jyothi, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Swami had assured India’s first medal by making the final on Wednesday.

Young compound archer Prathamesh Fuge is also eyeing a medal as he advanced to the semifinal in the individual category.

The Indian compound mixed team, No. 2 in world rankings, dropped just two points from 16 arrows to eliminate the host country’s duo of Han Seungyeon and Yang Jaewon 158-157 in a tight semi-final.

Jyothi and Priyansh will face USA’s Olivia Dean and Sawyer Sullivan in the gold medal match on Saturday in a clash of the top-two world ranked nations.

The fourth-seeded Indian duo earlier ousted Vietnam 159-152 in the first round of 16, missing the target only once from 16 arrows.

India then thwarted some strong resistance from formidable Mexico, seeded fifth, to win 156-155 in an intense quarterfinal.

Former world number one Deepika, who is making a return to the International cicruit after embracing motherhood in Decemeber 2022, secured four back-to-back wins to enter the last-four stage and remained the only Indian recurve archer in the medal hunt.

Deepika will face home favourite and world No. 2 Lim Sihyeon in Sunday’s semi-final, four weeks after the rising South Korean 20-year-old won the Shanghai Stage 1 gold by in a ruthless straight set victory.

Starting at fourth in the qualifications, Deepika overcame early jitters when she pipped Slovenian teenager Tinkara Kardinar in the shoot-off after 1-3 down in a dramatic first round clash.

Deepika started out shooting twice in the red ring (8-8) to total 26 and lost the first set by two points.

She drew level in the second set, shooting 27, and came on her own in the third where she dropped just a point to win the set 29-25.

Deepika won the fourth set 28-24 as pressure began to mount on the 18-year-old opponent. But there was more drama as Tinkara won the fifth set 28-27 to force a shoot-off that the Indian won 9-8.

Deepika then went on defeat Loc Thi Dao of Vietnam (6-2), Lisa Barbelin of France (6-0), Elif Berra Gokkir of Turkey (6-4) in her journey to the semifinal.

In other recurve women’s individual matches, Bhajan Kaur lost in the first round, while Ankita Bhakat could not cross the second round hurdle.

In the men’s individual recurve section, veteran Tarundeep Rai and Mrinal Chauhan suffered first round exits, while Dhiraj Bommadevara and Pravin Jadhav fell short in the second round.

The recurve mixed team of Deepika and Tarundeep Rai, who have more than 34 years of combined international experience between them, also returned empty-handed after going down in the quarterfinals.

Having qualified as second seed, the pair lost to 10th seeds Spain 2-6 (33-37, 36-38, 39-34, 34-36) following a miserable start.

The Indians shot in the red-ring twice (7 and 8) to drop seven points in the first set and went on to lose the second set too.

From 0-4 down, they won the third but they continued their inconsistent run as the Spaniards sealed the match in the fourth set.