Indian archers win 3 medals including gold; athletes Dev Meena, Ankita in finals

RHINE-RUHR, (Germany) July 25: India enjoyed by far the best day at the ongoing World University Games with its archers clinching three medals, including a mixed compound gold, while pole vaulter Dev Meena bettered his own NR and Ankita topped her women’s 3000m steeplechase heat as they both qualified for the finals, here on Friday.
Following a gold, silver and a bronze in archery, India have taken their tally at the WUG to five medals. India had won bronze medals in mixed team badminton and women’s singles tennis earlier.
India’s Parneet Kaur and Kushal Dalal held their nerves in a thrilling finish to beat South Korea’s Yerin Park and Seunghyun Park and clinch the mixed compound archery gold medal.
Parneet and Dalal’s triumph also gave India its first gold at the event, adding to two other medals won in archery team events earlier in the day.
Both archers had to deal with disappointment as Dalal settled for a silver in the men’s team event, while the Asian Games team gold medallist Parneet returned with a bronze in the women’s team event.
The duo showed remarkable character and composure in the mixed pair event to overturn a one-point deficit at the halfway mark, nailing eight perfect arrows — including one ‘X’ (closer to the centre) — across the final two ends to seal a 157-154 win.
Earlier, the women’s compound team of Parneet, Avneet Kaur and Madhura Dhamangaonkar opened India’s account with a commanding 232-224 win over Great Britain’s Chloe A’Bear, Hallie Boulton and Grace Chappell in the bronze-medal match.
The Indian trio dropped just one point in the first end to build an eight-point cushion, which they maintained with consistent shooting, sealing the bronze with another strong fourth-end score of 59.
The men’s compound team of Dalal, Sahil Jadhav and Hritik Sharma came agonisingly close to winning the gold medal, losing by just one point to Turkey’s Bauhan Akcaoglu, Yunus Emre Arslan and Yakum Yildiz.
The Indian men led by one point after the first end (58-57) and stretched it to 117-114 midway through the match. But Turkey bounced back with a perfect 60 in the third end to level at 174-174 and edged ahead in the final round, shooting 58 against India’s 57 to snatch gold by the narrowest of margins. (PTI)