Yecheon (South Korea): World Number one Indian women's compound archery team stormed into the final to remain in the hunt for a successive World Cup gold medal here on Wednesday.
The World No. 1 men's compound team, however, failed to live up to expectation and continued their below-par show to miss out on a bronze medal at the World Cup Stage 2. The women's trio of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Swami, who clinched the gold in Shanghai Stage 1 leg last month, ousted world no. 4 USA 233-229 in the semi-final. They will take on world no. 7 Turkey in the women's compound team gold medal clash here on Saturday.
Turkey pipped top-seed and local favourites South Korea 234-233 in the other semi-final. It was an overall easy sailing for the Indian women's team, who got a bye into the quarters after finishing second in the qualifying round. They eliminated Italy 236-234 in the last-eight.
The men's team of Priyansh, Prathamesh Fuge and veteran Abhishek Verma, who had slipped to fourth in the qualifying round on Tuesday, lost to lowly-ranked Australia 133-133 (10-10*) in a shoot-off.
The Aussies, who are world ranked 21st, took the Indian trio by surprise starting with a 59 by dropping just one point. The Aussies team of Bailey Wildman, Brandon Hawes and Jonathon Milne continued their fine run and overcame a one-point deficit after second round, to make it 233-all after the regulation four ended.
The two teams were 30-all in the ensuing shoot-off but the Aussies edged out the inconsistent Indians by shooting two Xs (arrows closer to centre) to secure the bronze medal. Having started their campaign with an easy 235-212 win over lowly-ranked Vietnam, India overcame tough competition from Denmark and top seed USA, winning both the matches in shoot-off.
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