The Indian compound archery contingent had a successful outing at the 2024 Archery World Cup Stage I in Shanghai on Saturday with four gold medals and a silver medal in the five events.
The women’s team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Gopichand Swami and Parneet Kaur won gold in the women’s final, beating Italy 236-225. The men’s team of Abhishek Verma, Priyansh and Prathamesh Fuge beat the Netherlands 238-231 to win gold in their final.
Then, Verma and Vennam combined to beat Estonia 158-157 in the mixed team final.
Vennam secured her third gold medal in Shanghai when she beat Mexico’s Andrea Becerra in a thrilling shoot-out after the latter shot a 9 in her final arrow to draw 146-146 in the women’s compound individual gold medal match.
Priyansh won his first-ever World Cup medal after he lost 147-150 to Austria’s Nico Wiener in the men’s compound individual gold medal match.
Vennam, Swami and Kaur had qualified as the top seed to face off against Italy in the women’s team final. The trio missed the perfect 10 score just twice in the first three Ends to lead 178-171. Then the Indian women’s team dropped only two points in the fourth End, but it did not matter much as the top seeds won gold by an 11-point margin.
The men’s team had qualified as the fourth seed and began perfectly with a score of 60 in the first End. Despite dropping two points over the next two Ends, the Indian men’s team completed the fourth End with yet another perfect score of 60 to clinch the gold medal by a seven-point margin.
Vennam and Verma then combined in the mixed team final against Estonia where they dropped only two points en route to their gold medal. The duo maintained a consistent lead throughout all four ends, achieving perfect scores in the first and third end.
In the individual semi-final, Vennam was calm and composed throughout her match against Estonia’s Meeri-Marita Paas and dropped only one point en route her win. However, the 28-year-old Indian was uncharacteristically off her form in the final, trailing by one point until the fifth end. Speaking to World Archery after the gold medal match, Vennam thanked her luck that allowed her to win gold despite shooting a 9 in the shoot-out.
For Priyansh, it was a solid outing in the semi-final where the 21-year-old achieved perfect scores in the first and second ends before scoring a 9 in each of the following ends to beat American Nick Kappers 147-146.
However, the gold medal match didn’t begin on a positive note for Priyansh who scored a 9 in the first end and ultimately had to play catch-up as his Austrian opponent achieved a perfect total of 150 to win gold.
