Women’s compound team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Gopichand Swami did country proud as they won the gold medal at the World Archery Championships in Berlin, Germany, on Friday. It was India’s first -ever gold at the archery world championships in any category.
The Indian trio defeated the Mexican team of Dafne Quintero, Ana Sofía Hernandez Jeon and Andrea Becerra 235-229 in the final. In the semi-finals, the second-seed Indians knocked out defending champions Colombia 220-216.
Earlier, the Indians had beaten Chinese Taipei and Turkey in the quarter-finals and the pre-quarterfinals, respectively after receiving a bye in the first round. Before the Berlin meet, India had won 11 medals – nine silver and two silver – at the World Archery Championships.
This was India’s fourth consecutive medal in the compound women’s team at the world championships, after silvers in 2017 and 2021 and a bronze in 2019. Jyothi Vennam has been a part of all four medal-winning teams.
In the compound men’s team event, Abhishek Verma, Ojas Deotale and Prathamesh Jawkar lost to the Netherlands 230-235 to bow out from the quarter-finals. In the mixed compound team event, Ojas Deotale and Jyothi Surekha Vennam went down 153-154 to the USA in the quarter-finals.
Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Gopichand Swami will be in action in the individual women’s compound quarter-finals on Saturday while Ojas Deotale is the lone Indian in
the top eight of the men’s category.
However Indian recurve archers, had a disappointing campaign and finished without a medal or any Olympic quota places for the Paris Games. Recurve archery is the only discipline of archery featured at the Olympics.
The women’s recurve team of Bhajan Kaur, Ankita Bhakat and Simranjeet Kaur, lost to the Netherlands 2-6 in the quarter-finals. The men’s recurve team of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tushar Prabhakar Shelke and Mrinal Chauhan also lost in the quarters to Korea.
A top-three finishes in either of these two events would have won India three quota places – one for each member of the team – for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
India also registered a disappointing finish in the recurve mixed team event. The pair of Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat lost to Italy 4-5 in the pre-quarterfinals.
Second seed Dhiraj Bommadevara and Simranjeet Kaur lost in the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s and women’s individual recurve events, respectively, missing out on the individual
Olympic quota berths on offer.
The World Archery Championships in Berlin is the first Paris 2024 Olympic qualifier event for archers.