India’s Trisha Deb, Muskan Kirar and Jyothi Surekha Vennam won the silver meal in the compound women’s team event at the Archery World Cup in Berlin on Saturday after a close defeat to France in the final.
Eyeing their first gold medal at a World Cup, Indian women came short by just a point in the final, with the French team of Sophie Dodemont, Amelie Sancenot and Sandra Herve winning 229-228. The first two rounds saw the two teams remain close to each other, but the Indians had a disappointing third round, letting the French get ahead by a five points with one round to go. Kirar shot one arrow really low in the six and one high, a red. The women in blue fought back in style in the final round, however, the gold eluded them by a whisker, having shot 59 in the final round. After two eights, Sancenot found herself needing a perfect 10 to win and she delivered.
The match ended 59-57, 57-59, 53-58, 59-55 in France’s favour.
“I knew it was going to be in [the 10] when I shot and it was good. It was a big relief,” Sancenot was quoted as saying by WorldArchery.org.
India, who qualified as the fifth-best team to the knockout stages, eliminated Great Britain in the first round before defeating fourth-seeded USA in the quarter-final. Deb, Kirar and Vennam then stunned top-ranked Turkey, 231-228, in the semifinals to make a second final this season, after Antalya. Meanwhile, 11th seed France upset Russia and Chinese Taipei on their way to the final.
UPDATE: A near-perfect performance in the third-place playoff by Abhishek Verma and Jyoti Surekha Vennam saw them clinch the bronze medal at the fourth stage of the Archery World Cup in Berlin on Saturday, defeating Turkey 156-153.
This is the pair’s fourth World Cup bronze medal in 2018, having finished on the podium at the Shanghai, Antalya and Salt Lake World Cups previously.
Report here.