The young Indian women’s compound team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Swati Dudhwal and Priyanshu Kachhap put up an impressive performance to win the gold at the recently-concluded World Archery University Championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The trio, who were seeded second, beat the seventh-seeded Russians Natalia Avdeeva, Diana Tontoeva and Ouna Bolotova, 228-220 in the final on Sunday.
The 19-year-old Surekha, who had been a part of the 2014 Asian Games bronze-medal winning team, led the Indians to a narrow 219-218 victory over Great Britain in the quarter-finals. In the last-four stage, they reigned supreme over the USA 228-225.
The talented teen Surekha had captured the individual women’s compound gold at the Asian Archery Championships in November last year. She was once again the best performer in the individual section at the World University Championships too. The 10th seeded Surekha made it as far as the quarter-finals after upsetting the seventh seed Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh of Malaysia.
In the last-eight, she was beaten 139-143 by the second seed Sarah Prieels of Belgium, who went on to finish as the runner-up.
None of the top Indian archers were at this event as they are now gearing up for the third stage of the Archery World Cup scheduled to begin in Antalya, Turkey from June 12. It is the last chance for the Indian men’s recurve team to earn an Olympic berth.
