Archery World Cup Stage 2: Indian compound mixed team reaches final; Deepika Kumari advances to semi-final

World No. 2 ranked Indian compound mixed team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Priyansh entered the final after defeating hosts Korea (Han Seungyeon and Yang Jaewon) 158-157 in a tight semi-final at the Archery World Cup Stage 2 in Yecheon, Republic of Korea, on Friday, May 24.

Jyothi and Priyansh will take on Olivia Dean and Sawyer Sullivan from the USA in the gold medal match on Saturday. Interestingly the compound women’s team, including Jyothi, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Swami, had secured the final spot already on Wednesday.

Moving to the details of the compound mixed team’s performance, the fourth-seeded duo of Jyothi and Priyansh defeated Vietnam 159-152 in the first round. Later, they stunned Mexico 156-155 in the intense quarter-final to advance to the last four.

Deepika Kumari advances to the semi-finals in the ongoing Archery World Cup

On the other hand, recurve archer Deepika Kumari stormed into the semi-finals after her exceptional performance in the ongoing Archery World Cup. She faced a strong challenge from Slovenia’s Tinkara Kardinar in the first round to win by 6-5 (SO 9-8).

Later, Deepika defeated Vietnam’s Loc Thi Dao 6-2, France’s Lisa Barbelin 6-0, and Turkey’s Elif Berra Gokkir 6-4 to advance to the semi-final against top-seeded Lim Sihyeon from Korea.

Notably, young compound archer Prathamesh Fuge already made it to the semi-finals of the Archery World Cup Stage 2 in the individual category on Thursday.

Unfortunately, other Indian recurve female and male archers made an early exit. The recurve mixed team comprising Deepika Kumari and Tarundeep Rai couldn’t make it big as they had to return empty-handed after suffering a defeat in the quarter-final. The second-seeded pair suffered a loss to 10th-seeded Spain by 2-6 (33-37, 36-38, 39-34, 34-36).

The Indian pair got off to a miserable start, losing the first two sets. From 0-4, they went on to win the third set, but due to their inconsistency, they had to suffer a defeat in the fourth set and eventually in the game.

With the recurve men’s and women’s teams already out of contention for medals, they would be aiming to make it big in the individual events.