Compound archers Ojas and Jyoti assure medal, compete against Korea in final

Shanghai. India’s compound archery team assured themselves of a medal in the second edition of the World Cup by qualifying for the final here on Friday but the recurve archers continued to be dismal. The Indian pair of Ojas Deotale and Jyoti Surekha Vennam took a strong step towards winning their second successive World Cup gold medal after beating their Italian rivals 157-157 (19*-19) in a thrilling semi-final. The sixth seeded Indian pair will face top seeded Korea in the final on Saturday. After winning the gold medal in the first leg of the World Cup in Antalya last month, the Indian pair will face a tough test in the final here.

The Indian pair comfortably beat Bangladesh 158-151 in the pre-quarterfinals, before they won 157-156 over a formidable Turkey team in the next round. In the semi-finals, Italy’s Alyssa Roner and Elia Fregnon shot perfect 40s in the first round to take a one-point lead. The Italian team scored 40 in the third period and increased their lead to two points (117-119). But Ojas and Jyoti came back brilliantly and shot 40s in the fourth round to take the match to a shoot-off, with the Indian pair’s arrows being closer to the center and making it to the finals on that basis.

But India was disappointed in the recurve event included in the Olympics. The fifth seeded recurve pair of Dheeraj Bommadevra and Simranjit Kaur lost their opening match 2-6 (39-35, 37-39, 37-38, 34-35) to Indonesia. The Indian pair, who made it to the second round (pre-quarterfinals) by virtue of their rankings, were ahead 2-0 initially against Indonesia but could not capitalize on it and lost to their lower-ranked team.