Indian women, the reigning world champions and No. 1 seed, have set up a title clash with Italy while the men’s team will face Netherlands on Saturday.
The Indian men’s and women’s compound archery teams assured the country of a podium finish by clinching the final spots for the season-opening Archery World Cup in Shanghai on Wednesday. The fourth-seeded men’s team, comprising experienced Abhishek Verma, newcomer Prathamesh Bhalchandra Fuge and reigning U-21 world champion Priyansh, beat the Philippines and Denmark before displaying worrying form to upset top qualifier South Korea and book a title showdown against the Netherlands on Saturday.
The Indians, the reigning world champions and No.1 seed, set up a title clash with Italy, beating Turkey and Estonia to confirm their status as the top team in the category.
The trio of defending U-18 champion and senior Aditi Swami, Asian Games gold medalist Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Parneet Kaur lost just 10 points in the two matches to confirm their superiority.
The Indian men’s team sprung a surprise by beating Korea by just two points at 235-233. Tied after two ends, the Indians took a point after the third and finished with a 59 to secure last place.
“Our coordination was good today and we read the wind well,” Abhishek said after the nerve-wracking semi-final against the Koreans.
“Semi-finals are always close matches. We were ready to shoot well and happy to get gold,” he added.
An elated Priyansh said after the Korea match that he was excited to compete against a strong opponent, whom he had so far only seen on social media.
“We played alongside players we watched on YouTube,” said Priyansh, who trains with Abhishek in Delhi. “We could have shot even better,” he added.
The Indian women’s team beat Estonia 235-230 and Aditi attributed this performance to the process the team has been following for a long time.
“We maintained our filming process and it worked well,” Aditi said.
“I hope we can repeat the success of the World Cup in Paris last year, where Indian men and women won the team gold medals.”
The team is without its charismatic Italian coach Sergio Pagni, currently in the national camp at home.
India’s opponent in the final, Italy, defeated Kazakhstan in a semi-final play-off after the scores were tied at 227 points.
The 10th seeded Dutch also won a tie-break – against France – to book their ticket to the final.
Mike Schloesser, Sil Pater and Stef Willems shot three perfect X-ring 10s, compared to their opponents’ standard 10s, to survive the match.
Kazakhstan’s women and Korea’s men’s team won bronze medals at the end of the session.
