Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Abhishek Verma enter compound mixed team final; archers eye four gold medals in World Cup

PTI

Shanghai, April 26

The compound mixed team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Abhishek Verma assured India of a fourth medal in the ongoing Archery World Cup, advancing into the final here on Friday.

The world number two Indians dropped just five points to prevail over their Mexican opponents Andrea Becerra and Lot Maximo Mendez Ortiz 155-151 in the semi-final.

They will face lower-ranked Estonia in the gold-medal clash on Saturday. Jyothi is also a member of the women’s compound team, which had entered the final on Wednesday.

With Jyothi also securing a semifinal spot in the individual section on Thursday, the World number three and Asian Games gold medallist is in the hunt for a hat-trick of top podium finishes.

Overall, Indian archers have qualified in four finals, all in the team events, and are in the hunt for two medals in compound individual events—where Jyothi and Priyansh have made the semifinals.

The four events where Indian teams have made the gold-medal round are compound men’s, women’s, mixed categories and men’s recurve.

The elimination round in the recurve individual category is slated to begin later in the day.

Having got an opening round bye, the second-seeded Indian pair of Jyothi and Verma started off by producing a flawless 160 out of 160 to knock out the lower-ranked Australian pair of Geogina Graham and Brandon Hawes by eight points.

Next up, 10th ranked Luxembourg’s Mariya Shkolna and Gilles Seywert were also no match for the Indian pair, which dropped just five points from 16 arrows to storm into the semi-finals with a 155-151 win.

In the semi-final, the Indians started on a back-foot after Andrea and Mendez Ortiz capped three 10s and one nine to take the opening end 39-38.

But the Mexicans slipped in the next set of arrows as Jyothi and Verma snatched the lead by dropping one point.

The Indians then extended their lead by three points in the penultimate round after another slip-up by the Mexicans.

Jyothi and Verma sealed the issue with a perfect 40 in the fourth end.