India’s Jyothi Surekha Vennam dazzles with two golds at Archery World Cup in Turkey

India’s in-form compound archer Jyothi Surekha Vennam kept her nerves under control to claim two gold medals on the penultimate day of the Archery World Cup in Antalya, Turkey.

The 26-year-old Jyothi outclassed formidable Sara Lopez of Colombia by three points (148-146) to win the individual compound women’s title.

Earlier, in the morning session, Jyothi combined with Ojas Pravin Deotale to defeat a strong Chinese Taipei pair of Chen Yi Hsuan and Chen Chieh Lun 159-154 to win the compound mixed team gold. The mixed team bronze went to Malaysia, who beat Italy 19-18 in a shoot-off.

Sanjeeva Kumar Singh, India’s high performance director in archery, was delighted with two gold medals in compound events at the season-opening World Cup in Turkey.

“The weather was perfect on Saturday. So was Jyothi’s performance as she handled the pressure calmly,” Singh told Sportskeeda over the phone from Antalya. “The performance of the compound archers is a healthy sign as the main goal is to excel at the Hangzhou Asian Games in September.”

Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Ojas Pravin Deotale defeated their Chinese Taipei opponents in the final to win gold mixed team event [Image: World Archer]

Jyothi Surekha Vennam topped the individual ranking chart with a score of 713, while Sara was third with 710. The Indian archer began her gold medal campaign by defeating Switzerland’s Myriam Hasler 145-137 in the first elimination round.

Jyothi defeated Danelle Lutz of the USA 145-141 in the second round and got the better of Ana Sofia Hernandez Jeon of Mexico 145-138 in the third round.

She then defeated Tanja Gellenthien of Denmark in the quarterfinals 147-142. In the semis, Jyothi defeated Ella Gibson of Great Britain 148-146.

On the way to gold, the Indian pair of Jyothi and Deotale edged past the Malaysian team 157-155 in the semifinals and beat Luxembourg and France in the first and second rounds.

The USA beat fancied Colombia 230-229 to win the compound women’s team title, while Mexico won bronze. Denmark won the compound men’s team gold. USA took home silver, while bronze went to Chinese Taipei.