India’s compound team bows out of medal round at Archery World Cup in Antalya

India’s men's and women’s compound teams bowed out of the medal round at the ongoing Archery World Cup in Antalya, Turkey.

This came a day after India’s Jyothi Surekha Vennam shot 713 out of a possible 720 in the qualification to match Colombia’s seven-time world champion Sara Lopez’s world record set in 2015. However, on Wednesday, the Indian women’s team lost their quarterfinal match to the USA, to finish outside the medal round.

The Indian compound team of Jyothi, Aditi Gopichand Swami (700), and Avneet Kaur (699) were ranked number one in the ranking round.

Sanjeeva Kumar Singh, India’s high-performance director in archery, said the Indian team lost as Aditi and Avneet lacked experience.

“While the Indian team shot well in the qualification round, the two juniors (Aditi and Avneet) weren’t able to push themselves in the quarterfinals,” the high performance director in archery told Sportskeeda over the phone from Antalya.

Despite being ranked number one, India lost to the USA, ranked eighth in the qualification, by 225 to 233 in the quarterfinals.

The Indian men’s team, on the other hand, lost their second-round match to Chinese Taipei 234-236 to bow out early in the competition.

The Indian men’s team consisting of Ojas Pravin Deotale (709), Rajat Chauhan (706), and Prathamesh Samadhan Jawkar (706) were ranked sixth in the qualification round.

The USA compound team will compete in both the men's and women’s gold medal matches. The USA men will face Denmark, while the women’s team will take on world champions Colombia in the final.

Jyothi Surekha Vennam equalled the world record in the qualification round [File Photo]

Chinese Taipei won bronze in the men’s group, while Mexico took home the same medal in the women's competition.

Indian archers failed to capitalize on good start

Jyothi Surekha Vennam dominated the qualification round. She shot 353/360 in her first series, while in the second series, she shot a perfect 360/360 to equal the world record. With a total of 713 out of a possible 720, Jyothi was ranked number one in the qualification. However, she wasn't able to capitalize on it.

Pramod Chandurkar, secretary general of the Archery Association of India (AAI), said it was too early to analyze what went wrong.

“There will be a discussion post the World Cup. The players and coaches will put forward their views,” Chandurkar said. “Healthy discussion will enable the team to move forward and do better in the next competition.”

There are certainly some positives to take away from this tournament for the Indian archers. However, work in key areas needs to be done if the Indian archers are to earn medals in next year's Olympic Games in Paris.