The Indian men’s and women’s compound teams both made their way into the finals of the ongoing 2023 Archery World Cup Stage 4 in Paris on Wednesday.

While the women’s team comprising of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur, and world champion Aditi Swami defeated Great Britain 234-233 in the semi-finals, the Indian men had to overcome an even stiffer challenge.

The trio of Ojas Deotale, Prathamesh Jawakar, and Abhishek Verma finished level on terms with the archers from South Korea at 235-235.

The two teams were inseparable even after the shoot-off with both shooting a perfect 30, but the Indians advanced to the gold medal match. They will now face USA in the final on Saturday.

“It was a very tight match and we were just shooting, focusing on the shot while calming our nerves,” said Kaur to World Archery.

“We have shot in the World Championships before and as a team, even if we were losing a few points, we were focusing on pushing each other to do our best,” added Swami after the semi-final win over Great Britain.

“It was a piece of cake,” said Deotale to World Archery, who became the men’s compound world champion earlier this month in Berlin. “It’s a special feeling that we’re all in the finals together.”

Earlier in the day, the Indian men’s team started with a comfortable 239-235 win over Italy before taking down Mexico 237-235 in the quarter-finals.

The women’s team, on the other hand, received a bye in the first round before defeating Estonia 233-230 in the quarter-finals.

This comes just a day after Vennam (710) and Deotale (713) topped the women’s and men’s compound qualification rounds respectively.

“I am excited and looking forward to the week ahead,” Vennam said, speaking to World Archery.

Commenting on the recent success of the Indian team who won the women’s compound team gold at the World Archery Championships in Berlin, she said: “I think everything has come together now.

“We have a lot of good competitions in India and we are trying to give the best in each and every tournament, and grab as many medals as we can.”

Deotale was, however, seeded second following a coin toss after he was tied with Mathias Fullerton for points at the end of the qualification round.

“I just focus on my shooting, not what everyone else is shooting,” he said to World Archery. “That makes me calmer, just focusing on myself.”

Jawakar finished 16th scoring 708 , while Verma was placed 22nd with a score of 706.

In the women’s section, Swami notched up a score of 708 to finish fifth whereas Kaur (695) took the 28th spot.