First ladies: Indian women compound archers defeat Mexico to win country’s first-ever gold

PTI

Berlin, August 4

The Indian women’s compound team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur clinched a gold medal in the World Archery Championships after beating Mexico in the final here today.

The Indian trio won 235-229 for India’s first-ever gold in any category of the World Championships since its inception.

1 This is the first time Indian archers have won gold since the country made its World Championships debut in Punta Ala (Italy) in 1981

4 This is also India’s fourth consecutive medal in the women’s compound section at the Worlds, following their silver finishes in 2017 and 2021 and bronze in 2019

“It is wonderful feeling. We are delighted to win the country’s first-ever gold. Hope we can continue to win more gold medals,” said the 27-year-old Jyothi. “We just focused on our shooting, and we were confident that we would win.”

We were focused on the process. We had won enough silver medals and we had decided yesterday that we will win the gold. This is a start and we will win more medals. Jyothi Surekha Vennam

It was a historic moment ... we became world champions by defeating two great compound archery heavyweights. It will see a boom in coming years as there is an outside chance of compound getting introduced in the LA 2028 Olympics. Sanjeeva Singh, National High Performance Director

This was also India’s fourth consecutive medal in the women’s compound section at the Worlds, following their silver finishes in 2017 and 2021 and bronze in 2019. Jyothi has been a part of all four medal-winning teams.

Earlier, India had beaten Colombia 220-216 in the semifinals after a 228-226 win over Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.

Always a step ahead

Up against Mexico, the second-seeded Indians dominated from the start as they shot 59 points out of 60 in the first three rounds to cruise to a 177-172 lead.

In the first round of the final, they drilled in two X (closer to the centre) in five perfect 10s to put early pressure on Mexico’s Dafne Quintero, Ana Sofia Hernandez Jeon and Andrea Becerra who totalled 57.

The second round saw Mexico shoot 58 points as they trailed by three points.

In the third round, Jyothi, Aditi and Parneet had one X from five 10s en route 59, while Mexico managed 57 to give India a five-point cushion going into the decider, which the Indian trio sealed with a 58.

It was a big relief especially for Jyothi, who finally won gold after missing out on four occasions previously.

In the last edition in Yankton 2021, she lost out in the individual, team and mixed pair finals.

Her maiden final appearance was with the team in the 2017 Mexico City edition when she was with Trisha Deb and Lily Chanu Paonam. Overall, Jyothi now has one gold, four silver and two bronze medals from the World Championships.

Jyothi, Aditi and Parneet are also in the hunt for individual medals after having progressed to the quarterfinals. While Parneet will be up against Jyothi in an all-Indian last-eight clash, Aditi will take on Sanne De Laat of the Netherlands.