India’s teenage recurve archer Bhajan Kaur sails into Archery World Cup semis in Antalya

India’s teenage recurve archer Bhajan Kaur tamed local tricky conditions in Antalya to sail into the semifinals of the women’s recurve event at the Archery World Cup in Turkey. Inform compound archer Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Dhiraj Bommadevara (recurve) also entered the semifinals of their respective events.

In the quarterfinals on Friday (April 21), Bhajan upset top seed Aljendra Valencia 6-5 to stay in contention for a medal. Earlier, Bhajan beat Alua Mulhtarkhanova of Kazakhstan 7-3 and got the better of Elisabetta Mijno of Italy 6-2 in the second round.

Ankita Bhakat also started her elimination round on a positive note, but faced an uphill task in the third round as she faced Germany’s Elina Idensen, who proved to be far stronger than expected. Ankita lost 4-6 to Elina to bow out of the competition.

Both Aditi Jaiswal and Simrajeet Kaur lost in the first round to bow out of the competition.

Upset galore in the recurve elimination round as several top archers weren’t able to adapt to tricky local weather conditions on Friday.

India’s Bommadevara, ranked 15th in the qualification round, will face Dan Olaru of Moldova in the semifinals. Olaru is one of the seeded players to have advanced to the semifinals of the men’s recurve event. India’s Atanu Das lost his fourth-round match, while Tarundeep Rai lost 6-4 in the quarters to compatriot Bommadevara.

In the men’s compound event, Rajat Chauhan lost tie shoot in quarters.

Earlier, Indian pair of Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Ojas Pravin Deotale combined well to stay on course for a gold medal in the mixed compound team event. Jyothi and Deotale edged past the Malaysian team 157-155 in the semifinals on Friday to set up a title clash with Chinese Taipei on Saturday (April 22). On the way to the gold medal match, the Indian team beat Luxembourg and France.