In tough conditions with gusts of wind reported through the day, Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Abhishek Verma stood out for India in the qualification rounds at the Archery World Championships in Yankton, USA on Tuesday.
Surekha shot consistently well for a total of 684 to be seeded sixth while Verma made a later charge and scored 695 in the qualification to earn the seventh seed. That earned them byes in the first two elimination rounds.
Muskan Kirar also earned a first-round bye in women’s compound event after finishing 29th in the qualification. The third Indian in the women’s compound event, Priya Gurjar will face Isabelle Carpenter of Great Britain in the first round after finishing 51st in the qualification.
Verma’s colleagues, Sangampreet Singh and Rishab Yadav will feature in the first round of the eliminations after finishing 26th and 49th respectively.
India’s compound team rankings after qualification:
Men’s team: 5th seeds
Women’s team: 7th seeds
Mixed team (Abhishek-Jyoti): 5th seeds
In men’s recurve section, Parth Sushant Salunkhe, Aditya Choudhary and Atul Verma will compete in the first round of the eliminations after finishing 45th, 53rd and 56th respectively.
Ankita Bhakat, Ridhi and Komalika Bari made it straight to the second round of women’s individual recurve after finishing 20th, 26th and 29th respectively. All the three got first round byes. The women’s recurve was unsurprisingly dominated by Korea, with three archers in the top four. Star of Tokyo 2020, An San, staged a stunning second half comeback from outside the top 10 to finish as the top seed.
India’s recurve team rankings after qualification:
Women’s team: 7th seeds
Men’s team: 13th seeds
Mixed team (Parth-Ankita): 16th seeds
In men’s recurve team event, Indian trio of Parth Sushant Salunkhe, Aditya Choudhary and Atul Verma will face Canada in the first round of eliminations after finishing 13th in the qualification.
The recurve women’s team of Ankita Bhakat, Ridhi and Komalika Bari did better than their male counterparts by finishing seventh to get the first round bye. The Indian trio will face Japan in the second round.
In the men’s compound team, the Indian trio of Verma, Sangampreet and Rishab earned first round byes after finishing fifth in the qualification.
The compound women’s team of Surekha, Muskan and Priya finished fifth in the qualification to face Denmark in the first round. A win against Denmark will take them to quarterfinals.
The compound mixed team of Verma and Surekha earned a first round bye after finishing fifth in qualifications. They face RAF in the second round. Later in the day, India beat Ukraine 6-0 in recurve mixed team first round to face top seeds Korea (An San and Kim Woojin) in second round.
India has sent a young team of 12 archers in the championships picked on the basis of selection trials in August. Tokyo Olympians Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav, Tarundeep Rai and Deepika Kumari did not make it to the squad as they had failed to finish in the top three during the trials that were conducted immediately on their return from Tokyo.
Top three seeds: Recurve men
- Kim Woojin, Korea – 677
- Marcus D’Almeida, Brazil – 670
- Brady Ellison, USA – 659
Top three seeds: Recurve women
- An San, Korea – 646
- Alejandra Valencia, Mexico – 644
- Jang Minhee, Korea – 642
Top three seeds: Compound men
- Evren Cagiran, Turkey – 705
- Mike Schloesser, Netherlands –700
- Chris Perkins, Canada – 699 (29 Xs)
Top three seeds: Compound women
- Sara Lopez, Colombia – 693
- Ella Gibson, Great Britain – 692
- Alejandra Usquiano, Colombia – 691
With PTI inputs
Full details of India’s upcoming matches here.