India’s Abhishek Verma and Divya Dhayal won bronze medal in the compound mixed event at the Archery World Cup Stage II at Antalya on Saturday. Verma and Dhayal defeated the Italian team 154-153 in four sets.
Indian men’s and women’s compound teams however returned empty-handed from the World Cup, losing the bronze play-off to their French and Italian opponents respectively. It was an otherwise disappointing campaign.
The women’s compound team also lost the bronze medal match 222-227 to Italy as India suffered successive defeats in the morning session.
India had high expectations in the compound team event where they bagged a gold in the World Cup Stage I last month.
But the trio of Abhishek Verma, Chinna Raju-Srither and Gurwinder Singh lost to Pierre-Julien Deloche, Dominique Genet and Fabien Delobelle 227-228 in a closely-fought encounter. It was their lackluster opening end of 56 against the Frenchmen’s solid 59 out of a maximum 60 that proved costly.
Making amends in the second end, Indians shot four perfect 10s including two Xs (closest to the centre) to level 114-114. But, the French team snatched a slender 172-171 lead in the third end before sealing the bronze in the next set.
In the women’s compound team event, Divya Dhayal, Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Snehal Mandhare opened up a 56-54 lead and extended it 112-110 with consistent shootings. But they capped an 8 and 7 in a terrible third end of 54 to allow Marcella Tonioli, Irene Franchini and Viviana Spano to take a crucial 166-168 lead.
Italy came up with a near-flawless 59 in the fourth end to clinch the bronze.
In the recurve section – an Olympic discipline – India failed to show any promise. It’s been a year since the recurve archers last won a World Cup medal – in Stage III in Antalya in 2016 – where Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari had won a silver in mixed pair.
