Yecheon (South Korea): The Indian women's compound trio of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Swami grabbed their third successive Archery World Cup gold medal, while the mixed team added a silver at the stage two event on Saturday.
The world number one Indian compound women's team dominated Turkey's Hazal Burun, Ayse Bera Suzer and Begum Yuva right from the first end, sealed the gold without dropping a set, maintaining a healthy six-point margin (232-226) in a lopsided final.
Asian Games champion Jyothi, however, failed to add a second gold to her kitty as she along with Priyansh squandered an opening round lead to go down to the USA's Olivia Dean and Sawyer Sullivan by two points (155-153) in the compound mixed team final. For Jyothi, Parneet and world champion Aditi, this completed a hat-trick of World Cup gold medals together. They had won the season-opening World Cup Stage 1 in Shanghai, downing Italy last month and ended last year with a gold at stage four of the event in Paris.
In the compound women's team final, the second-seeded Indians began with three X (arrows near the centre) and dropped one point each in the next three arrows to edge out their fifth-seeded rivals by one point in the first round. In the next round of six arrows, the Indians showed complete supremacy, drilling in five perfect 10s with two X, and one 9 to stretch their lead by four points at the halfway mark.
Turkey fought hard in the penultimate round to shoot four 10s with one X to match India's score of 58. But that did not matter much as the Indians were ahead by four points going into the fourth and final end. They sealed it by scoring yet another 58, which was studded with three 10s and one X. In a battle between the world's top-two ranked nations in the compound mixed team final, the USA made a remarkable comeback to win the gold and maintain their supremacy.
Jyothi and Priyansh raced to a two-point lead by shooting a near-flawless 39 points out of a maximum of 40 in the first end. But they struggled for consistency as Olivia and Sullivan bounced back to shoot 39 to edge out the Indians by two points to bring it level (76-all) at the halfway mark. The No. 2 seed USA pair landed a perfect score of 40 in the third end to snatch a slender one-point lead as the Indians managed 39, dropping one point. Jyothi and Priyansh needed to shoot a perfect 40 to force a shoot-off, but they managed a 38 as the USA pair scored 39 to seal the gold.
A third medal is also expected from the compound category in this edition of the World Cup where Prathamesh Fuge is one win shy of a maiden individual World Cup podium finish. Fuge, who upset 2021 world champion and world No. 6 Nico Wiener of Austria in the quarters, will be up against world No. 7 James Lutz in his bid for a maiden individual World Cup medal. Fuge was part of the gold medal-winning men's team in Shanghai. (With PTI inputs)
