India’s compound archery team once again brought cheers confirming its first medal from the World Cup Stage 2, as recurve archers continued to falter, here on Friday.
The new-look pair of Ojas Deotale and Jyothi Surekha Vennam remained on course for a second successive World Cup gold when they defeated their Italian rivals 157-157 (19*-19) in a dramatic finish to make the final.
As expected, the sixth seeded Indian duo will run into top-seed Korea in the final on Saturday, in what would be their biggest test since they paired up for the first time, winning the Stage 1 World Cup gold in Antalya last month.
The Indians started off eliminating Bangladesh 158-151 in lopsided pre-quarterfinals, while in the next round they overcame a strong challenge from Turkey to emerge 157-156 winners.
Italy’s Elisa Roner and Elia Fregnan had a one-point lead shooting a perfect 40 in the first end. The Italians once again shot a 40 in the third end to extend their lead by two points (117-119).
But Ojas and Jyothi showed remarkable composure to drill in two Xs en route to shooting 40 in the fourth end to force a shoot-off where the Indians sealed the issue with their arrows landing near the centre.
However, in the Olympic category, the fifth seeded recurve duo of Dhiraj Bommadevara and Simranjeet Kaur failed to live up to expectations and lost to Indonesia 2-6 (39-35, 37-39, 37-38, 34-35) in their opening match.
The Indian duo who got a bye into the second round (prequarterfinals) by virtue of their rankings squandered a 2-0 lead against the lower-ranked Indonesians.
They had a chance in the fourth end but they were wayward and shot in the outer seven-point ring to make an early exit.
