India opened their account in the Archery World Cup at Antalya in Turkey on Friday with the compound women’s team trio of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Muskan Kirar and Divya Dhayal bagging the silver medal. In the gold medal match, they narrowly lost out to winners Chinese Taipei, finishing 228 to their opponents’ 231.
After losing the first two rounds, Vennam, Kirar and Dhayal made a spirited comeback in the third and fourth rounds, but the Indians fell just short in the end. South Korea had pulled off a big upset, beating hosts Turkey 227-224 to take the bronze medal.
UPDATE:
India increased their medal tally later in the day when the compound mixed team duo of Abhishek Verma and Vennam defeated Belgium’s Sarah Prieels and Reginald Kools in the bronze medal playoff. India’s second medal of the day at Antalya was also the duo’s second World Cup medal of 2018 as Verma and Vennam had earlier won bronze in China as well at the Shanghai World Cup in April.
On Friday, Verma and Vennam started off strongly in the first two rounds before the Belgians took the third round but could only match the Indians in the fourth, who won the match 158-155 in the end.