Shanghai (China): With three consecutive wins, the Indian men’s recurve team of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Rai, and Pravin Ramesh Jadhav, secured a spot in the final of the Archery World Cup here on Thursday.
The Indian trio lost the first three ends of the pre-quarterfinals match against Indonesia 1-3, but they rallied to win the next two ends, sealing the victory 5-3. After that initial scare, they didn’t look back, winning easily 5-1 against Spain and Italy in the ensuing stages.
India maintained their form going into the knockout stages, finishing second overall and averaging a score of above 55 to reach the final. On April 28, they will compete for the title against the formidable South Korean squad in the final.
The women’s recurve team maintained its dismal show, losing 3-5 to Mexico in the round of 16, thus exiting the competition early in contrast to the men’s victory. Their failure was mostly due to the poor scores of under 53 that Ankita Bhakat, Deepika Kumari, and Bhajan Kaur shot in three of the four ends.
However, it was a mixed day for the Indians in compound individual events as Aditi Swami and Abhishek Verma exited early, whereas Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Priyansh progressed to the semifinals on Thursday.
In the individual men’s compound pre-quarterfinals, Priyansh produced a stunning shock by eliminating the world’s top seed, Mike Schlosser of the Netherlands, in a shootout (149(10)-149(9)). He advanced to the semifinals by winning another shootout, this time against Batuhan Akçaoğlu of Turkey, 145-145(20-19).
Priyansh will face Nick Kappers of the United States in the semis on Saturday.
