India’s young archers Komalika Bari (recurve junior women), Sakshi Chaudhary (compound junior women) and Priya Gurjar (compound cadet women) reached the finals of their respective events at the World Archery Youth Championships in Wroclaw, Poland.
In mixed team events, the cadet group archers from recurve and compound have both reached their respective finals, assuring India of at least five medals from the event in Poland already.
The 19-year-old Bari, already a part of the senior set-up consistently, is a former Under-18 champion (Madrid 2019) and will look to add the Under-21 crown on Sunday. Bari can hope to emulate her senior teammate and become the second recurve woman from India to hold the under-18 and the under-21 world titles in back-to-back editions, a feat that was completed by Deepika Kumari 10 years back.
No other junior recurve archer is in medal contention.
Komalika Bari's results in Wroclaw
| Phase | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Qualification | N/A | 656 (rank 6) |
| Round of 32 | vs SHIBUYA Juri (JPN) | 6-4 |
| Round of 16 | vs ABDUSATTOROVA Ziyodakhon (UZB) | 6-0 |
| QF | vs WATANABE Mao (JPN) | 6-5 |
| SF | vs KAUFHOLD Casey (USA) | 6-4 |
| Final | vs CANALES Elia (ESP) | August 15 |
“I will try to get the gold medal to have a complete collection. Gold and gold. I feel ready to fight for it in the final,” Bari, the Jamshedpur-born Tata Archery Academy archer, told World Archery.
Two years after winning the under-18 world title, India’s Komalika Bari is into the gold medal match for the under-21 champion crown! 🥇🇮🇳#archery pic.twitter.com/KNhpPxw9Of
— World Archery (@worldarchery) August 12, 2021
In compound junior women’s category, 18-year-old Chaudhary stunned the top seed Dafne Quintero in the quarterfinal on her way to the gold medal match scheduled for Saturday. She will face reigning under-21 world champion Amanda Mlinaric of Croatia.
“I have never been on the finals stage before, so I’m very proud to see my country’s flag rising high. I have already secured a medal and I’m happy for it,” said Chaudhary as per World Archery.
In compound junior men’s category, Rishabh Yadav is in contention for bronze medal.
Sakshi Chaudhary's results in Wroclaw
| Phase | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Qualification | N/A | 678 (Rank 8) |
| Round of 32 | vs SEIDAKHMETOVA Aizhan (KAZ) | 142-141 |
| Round of 16 | vs ASHEGHZADEH OSKOUEI Bita (IRN) | 147-142 |
| QF | vs QUINTERO Dafne (MEX) | 147-145 |
| SF | vs SCARBROUGH Anna (USA) | 144-142 |
| Final | vs MLINARIC Amanda (CRO) | August 14 |
In compound cadet for women, top seed Priya Gurjar lived up to her top seed billing and reached the final where she will face Selene Rodriguez of Mexico. Parneet Kaur was also in the semifinal and she will be in contention for bronze medal.
Priya Gurjar's results in Wroclaw
| Phase | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Qualification | N/A | 696 (Rank 1) |
| Round of 32 | SANDERS Chyler (CAN) | 142-137 |
| Round of 16 | CASTILLO Adriana (MEX) | 143-141 |
| QF | SARIHAN Nehir (TUR) | 144-141 |
| SF | BOULTON Hallie (GBR) | 149-140 |
| Final | RODRIGUEZ Selene (MEX) | August 14 |
A total of seven Indian archers are in medal contention in individual events, with three assured of one. Other than Rishabh Yadav and Parneet Kaur, Manjiri Alone (recurve cadet women) and Bishal Changmai (recurve cadet men) are also in bronze medal matches.
In mixed team, top seeds in compound cadet category (Priya Gurjar and Kushal Dalal) and third seeds in recurve cadet category (Tamnna and Bishal Changmai) made it through to their respective gold medal matches.
Returning to junior age group two years after she became cadet world champion at Madrid, Bari dropped two sets to overcome Casey Kaufhold of the USA 6-4 (28-27, 25-28, 28-26, 25-30, 29-25).
The sixth seed from India will take on fourth seed Elia Canales of Spain on Sunday.
The 19-year-old, who is also part of the Indian senior team, described her five-setter win over the Tokyo Olympics-returned American as a tough one.
“It was a very close match and she is really strong. She’’s just came from the Olympics in Tokyo. She is a great archer.”
Having got two byes, the sixth-seeded Bari defeated Japanese Juri Shibuya 6-4, Kazakh Ziyodakhon Abdusattarova 6-0 and Mao Watanbe of Japan 6-5 (8-7) in the shoot-off to make the last-four.
In the compound junior women’s individual section, eighth seed Chaudhary pipped American Anna Scarbrough 144-142 to set up a final clash against Mlinaric.
Palton Hasda (Merida 2006) was the last Indian to win a junior world title in the compound section.
Rishabh, who lost to Robin Jaamta of Estonia 147-146 in the compound junior men’s individual semi-final, will take on Sebastian Garcia of Mexico in the bronze play-off.
Earlier in the competition, in the cadet compound event, the Indian team of Priya Gurjar, Parneet Kaur and Ridhu Senthilkumar combined for a total of 2067 to better the previous world record record by 22 points. Priya shot 696 to take the individual top seed, while Parneet Kaur (third) and Ridhu Varshini Senthilkumar (fourth) were the next best Indians.
Priya also combined with Kushal Dalal (705) for a mixed pair tally of 1401 to break the previous mark held by Danish duo of Natacha Stutz and Mathias Fullerton (1387).