Archery World Cup Stage 2: Prathamesh Fuge enters semi-final; Indian recurve teams suffer losses in the second round

On an otherwise disappointing day at the Archery World Cup Stage 2 in Yecheon, South Korea, on May 23, Thursday, Prathamesh Fuge’s entry into the semi-final was the lone good piece of news.

Moving to the details of the day, in the compound men’s individual event, Prathamesh Fuge displayed sheer consistency, defeating Przemyslaw Konecki by 148-144 in the first round. Later, he stunned Sebastian Garcia from Mexico by 147-144 in the second round of the ongoing Archery World Cup.

In the third round, Prathamesh continued his dominance, defeating Emircan Haney from Turkey by 147-146 to advance to the quarterfinal. Shifting to the quarters, he came out on top over Nico Wiener from Austria by 146-145 to make it to the semi-final.

In the semi-final, Prathamesh will lock horns with James Lutz from America. The other semi-finalists in the men's compound individual events are Sawyer Sullivan from America and Mike Schloesser from the Netherlands.

On the other hand, other male compound archers put up a disappointing show in the individual elimination rounds. Priyansh, Abhishek and Rajat were the other compound archers competing in the individual event of the Archery World Cup.

While Priyansh made an exit in the third round, Abhishek Verma and Rajat Chauhan were eliminated from the second round. Priyansh's defeat came over Mathias Fullerton from Denmark.

Abhishek faced a defeat over Julio Barillas from Guatemala, while Rajat Chauhan suffered a loss over Mike Schloesser from the Netherlands.

Women compound archers put up a disappointing show in the Archery World Cup Stage 2

Another disappointing piece of news was the poor performance of the well-accomplished women compound archers in the individual elimination rounds.

World champion Aditi Swami suffered a defeat over America’s Alexis Ruiz by 142-145 in the second round. Avneet Kaur faced a loss to Korea’s Oh Yoohyun in the second round by 143-145.

Jyothi Surekha and Parneet Kaur made it to the quarterfinals but had to suffer defeats over Sara Lopez from Colombia by 142-145 and Korean Han Seungyeon by 138-145, respectively.

In recurve team events, the second-seeded Indian men’s team, comprising Tarundeep Rai, B. Dhiraj and Mrinal Chauhan suffered a defeat over Canada by 3-5. Meanwhile, the women’s team, including Deepika Kumari, Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat was beaten by Vietnam 4-5 (25-27).