YECHEON, May 22: World number one Indian women’s compound team stormed into the final of the archery World Cup Stage II but the men’s team will return empty-handed from the tournament after losing the bronze medal clash to Australia here Wednesday.
The trio of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Swami, that had clinched gold medal in World Cup Stage 1 in Shanghai leg last month, knocked out world number four USA 233-229 in the semi-final.
India will now clash with world number seven Turkey in the gold medal clash on Saturday. Turkey had stunned top-seed and local favourites South Korea 234-233 in the other semi-final.
It was an overall easy sailing for the Indian women’s team, which got a bye into the quarters after finishing second in the qualifying round. They eliminated Italy 236-234 in the last-eight.
The world number one men’s team of Priyansh, Prathamesh Fuge and veteran Abhishek Verma, lost to lowly-ranked Australia 133-133 (10-10*) in a shoot-off.
The Aussies, who are world ranked 21st, took the Indian trio by surprise starting with a 59, dropping just one point.
The Aussies team of Bailey Wildman, Brandon Hawes and Jonathon Milne continued its fine run and overcame a one-point deficit after the second round to make it 233-all after the regulation four ended.
The two teams were 30-all in the ensuing shoot-off but the Aussies edged out the inconsistent Indians by shooting two Xs (arrows closer to centre) to secure the bronze medal.
Having started their campaign with an easy 235-212 win over lowly-ranked Vietnam, India overcame tough competition from Denmark and top seed USA, winning both the matches in shoot-off.
Meanwhile, the veteran duo of Tarundeep Rai and Deepika Kumari finished fourth and sixth in their respective qualifiers as recurve competition got underway.
Rai shot 681 points for a sixth spot in rankings, while Dhiraj Bommadevara narrowly missed a top-10 finish on X (closer to centre) count after five archers shot 678 with the Indian finishing 11th.
The Army duo’s solid finish ensured Indian recurve men’s team No 2 seeding in their title defence. India and top-seeded South Korea will begin their campaign at the opposite ends of the draw.
Deepika missed the top-three finish in the rankings by just one point, shooting 677 as the Korean duo of Lim Sihyeon (685), Jeon Hunyoung (680) and Li Jiaman (678) took the 1-2-3 seedings.
The other Indians however fell way short with Bhajan Kaur (653 points) and Ankita Bhakat (646) were the next best Indians at lowly 34th and 49th places respectively. As a result, the women’s team seedings could not be better than six.
Rai and Deepika combined to get a cumulative 1358 points for the second spot behind South Korea in the recurve mixed team category. (PTI)
