Antalya (Turkey): Dhiraj Bommadevara secured two bronze --- one individual and another in a recurve mixed team event with Bhajan Kaur, as India ended their campaign with four medals in the Archery World Cup Stage 3, here on Sunday.
India could have added another but Ankita Bhakat, eyeing a maiden World Cup medal, narrowly lost her semifinal to eventual gold medalist and top-seed Yang Xiaolei of China. She eventually ended up losing her bronze medal match as well. The third-seeded mixed team of Dhiraj and Bhajan produced an excellent performance to rally past Mexico and clinch a bronze.
Trailing 0-2 after conceding the opening set, the third-seeded mixed team of Dhiraj and Bhajan produced a flawless round to bring it level and seal a stunning 5-3 (35-38, 40-39, 38-37, 38-38) win over their Mexican opponents Alejandra Valencia and Matias Grande in the bronze playoff. Dhiraj, who qualified as the No 3 seed, then went on to add another in the individual section when he defeated ninth-seeded Marco Nespoli of Italy 7-3 (28-27, 29-28, 27-28, 28-28, 30-29).
It was also his second World Cup bronze, having won his maiden medal at the Stage 1 of the event at this same place last year. Dhiraj earlier lost in the semifinal against world No 3 former Olympic team medalist Kim Woojin of South Korea. The Army man managed to hold the South Korean heavyweight twice before going down 2-6 (29-29, 27-30, 29-29, 27-29) in a high-intensity last-four clash.
Ankita, who came all the way after her lowly 45th finish in the rankings, fought hard from being 0-2 down to make it 2-2 but could not capitalise on crunch moments to lose the next two sets narrowly to cap a 2-6 (26-30, 28-27, 26-27, 27-28) defeat against Yang. In the bronze medal match, Ankita lost to world No 3 Alejandra Valencia 3-7 (27-29, 26-27, 29-27, 29-29, 27-29).
India on Saturday had bagged one gold and one silver in the compound section. Indian women's compound team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur bagged the gold, while Priyansh clinched the silver.
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