The Indian mixed compound archery pair of Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Priyansh pipped a strong home team on Friday to enter the final of the Archery World Cup Stage II in Yecheon, South Korea.
The mixed recurve team of Deepika Kumari and veteran Tarundeep Rai however, lost in the quarter-final stage of their event to Spain.
In the individual events, Kumari made it to the semi-final of the women’s recurve contest by beating Elif Berra Gokkir 6-4.
Vennam and Priyansh started their campaign with a straight-forward 159-152 win over Vietnam in the first round, followed by a narrow 156-155 win over Mexico in the quarter-final. The semi-final against the Korean duo of Han Seungyeon and Yang Jaewon proved to be a nervy encounter.
The Indians took a slender 39-38 lead after the first End, and then shot a perfect 40 to Korea’s 39 for a 79-77 lead at the second End.
Both teams hit the 10 circle with every shot in the third End, meaning the Indians would carry a two point lead going into the final exchanges.
The hosts shot strongly to score a perfect 40 in the final End, but the Indians managed to hold on with a 39 for a narrow 158-157 win.
They will play the American team of Olivia Dean and Sawyer Sullivan in the final on Saturday.
In the recurve team event, Kumari and Rai were given a bye in the first round, before holding on to beat Colombia 5-3 in the second round.
But their journey in the competition ended against Spain’s Elia Canales and Andres Temino Mediel.
The Spaniards started strong, taking the first set 37-33 to go 2-0 on the scoreboard, and then doubled the lead with a 38-36 score in the second set. The Indian duo managed to pull one back in the third set, taking it 39-34 to trail 2-4 in the overall tally.
The team from Spain however secured the win by scoring 36 to India’s 34 in the fourth set to secure the win.
Kumari through to semi-final
Kumari along with Ankita Bhakat got their individual campaigns off to a good start with wins in the opening round, while Bhajan Kaur exited the competition with a 3-7 loss to Malaysia’s Ariana Nur Dania Mohamad Zairi.
Bhakat then faltered in the second round with a 4-6 loss to Spain’s Irati Unamunzaga Altuna while Kumari progressed into the third round by beating Vietnam’s Loc Thi Dao 6-2. The former world No 1 then secured a quarter-final spot with a big 6-0 win over Lisa Barbelin of France. She then set up a semi-finals encounter with home favourite Lim Sihyeon on Saturday after beating her Turkish opponent in the quarter-final.
In the men’s recurve elimination rounds, Dhiraj Bommadevara and Pravin Ramesh Jadhav both exited the competition in the second round while Rai and Mrinal Chauhan both lost in the opening round.