World Archery Championships: Indian women’s compound team reaches final, creates history

The trio of Trisha Deb, Lily Chanu Paonam and Jyothi Surekha Vennam created history by becoming the first women’s compound team from India to reach the final of the World Archery Championships at Mexico City on Thursday. The sixth seeded Indians beat the 10th seeded German team of Kristina Heigenhauser, Janine Meissner and Velia Schall 232-227 to set up a final showdown with the fourth seeds Colombia.

The Colombian trio of Sara Lopez, Alejandra Usquiano and Nora Valdez stunned the top seeds Korea 232-231 in the other semi-final.

“We are so proud of ourselves; it’s amazing to make the gold final,” an elated Paonam, who upset the legendary Sara Lopez in the individual section, told worldarchery.org after the historic feat.

Earlier, India beat 11th seeds Russia 232-229 in the Round of 16 and followed it up with a 233-228 victory over the third seeds Denmark in the quarter-finals. The Indian girls have so far had the highest per-match average out of all the teams in the field at the Campo Marte.

Jyothi Surekha Vennam also spoke to the website and promised to try and win the gold.

“We will shoot the same as today and try to win gold. It will be our first time shooting against Colombia and they are good, so we’re excited about it,” she said.

India ensures fifth World Championships medal

The Indian trio will attempt to bring home India’s first ever gold medal from the World Championships when they lock horns with Colombia in the summit clash on Saturday. With their semi-final win on Thursday, the triumvirate also ensured India’s first medal in the compound team category from this prestigious tournament.

India so far has just four silver medals from the World Championships, out of which only one has been in compound. Rajat Chauhan etched his name in the record books by clinching India’s first individual medal when he finished with the silver in men’s individual compound archery in 2015.

India has the rest of the medals in the recurve section, two of which were won by the women’s team and one by the men’s team. In 2005, the recurve troika of Tarundeep Rai, Gautam Singh and Jayanta Talukdar delivered India its first World Championships medal when they grabbed the silver in Madrid.

Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro added another silver to India’s kitty in 2011. Deepika earned her second team silver four years later in Copenhagen when she joined forces with Rimil Buriuly and Laxmirani Majhi.