The world’s number one Indian women’s team reached the final of the second leg of the Archery World Cup, but the men’s team will return from the tournament empty-handed after losing the bronze medal clash to Australia in Yecheon on Wednesday. The trio of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Swami, who won the World Cup Stage 1 gold medal at the Shanghai stage last month, eliminated world number four USA 233-229 in the semi-final. India will now face world number seven Turkey in the gold medal match on Saturday. Turkey stunned local favorites South Korea 234-233 in the other semi-final.
Overall, it was smooth sailing for the Indian women’s team, who received a bye in the quarter-finals after finishing second in the qualifying round. They eliminated Italy 236-234 in the round of 16.
The world’s number one men’s team of Priyansh, Prathamesh Fuge and veteran Abhishek Verma, who slipped to fourth in the qualifying stage on Tuesday, lost to lower-ranked Australia 133-133 (10-10*) in a penalty shootout.
The Australians, 21st in the world rankings, caught the Indian trio by surprise starting with 59, losing just one point.
The Australian team of Bailey Wildman, Brandon Hawes and Jonathon Milne continued their good run and overcame a one-point deficit after the second innings to reach 233, all after the end of the fourth regulation.
Both teams scored 30 points in the ensuing shoot-out, but the Australians overcame the inconsistent Indians by shooting two Xs (arrows closest to the center) to secure the bronze medal.
Having started their campaign with an easy 235-212 victory over lower-ranked Vietnam, India overcame stiff competition from Denmark and the USA, winning both matches on penalties.
Meanwhile, veteran duo Tarundeep Rai and Deepika Kumari finished fourth and sixth in their respective heats as the recurve competition began.
2010 Asian Games silver medalist Rai shot 681 for a sixth-place ranking, while Dhiraj Bommadevara narrowly missed out on a top-10 finish on the X count (closest to the center) after five archers shot 678 with the Indian finishing 11th.
The Army duo’s solid finish secured the Indian men’s recurve team second place in their title defense. India and South Korea will begin their campaign at opposite ends of the draw.
The Indian men’s team shocked world champions South Korea for the first time at a World Cup by winning gold in Stage 1 of the event in Shanghai last month.
Deepika missed out on the top three rankings by just one point, scoring 677, while the Korean duo of Lim Sihyeon (685), Jeon Hunyoung (680) and Li Jiaman (678) took 1-2-3.
The other Indians, however, fell short, with Bhajan Kaur (653 points) and Ankita Bhakat (646) being the next best Indians, at 34th and 49th places respectively. As a result, the women’s team’s rating could not be better than six.
Rai and Deepika combined to score a cumulative total of 1,358 points for second place behind South Korea in the mixed team recurve category.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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