Archery at Asian Games: Jyothi enters final, beats compatriot Aditi by 149-146

Jyothi Vennam has moved to the finals of the compound individual archery event. In the semis, she was able to beat her compatriot Aditi Gopichand by a scoreline of 149-146. She has earlier progressed into the semi-final of the compound individual archery event by outplaying her Kazazkh opponent Adel Zhexenbinovaof by 147-144.

Hangzhou(China): Jyothi Vennam has entered into the final of the compound individual event in Archery by beating her fellow archer Aditi Gopichand. Jyothi managed to score 149 while Aditi wandered off the bullseye twice more than the former before bowing out of the final.

In Jyothi's earlier fixture, she beat Kazakhstan opponent Adel Zhexenbinovaof in a thrilling encounter by a narrow margin of three points. Her performance has taken her within close distance of a medal.

The Tuesday fixture was a close contest between the two archers from the start which was reflected in the scoreline as it read 88-87 in favour of Jyothi by the end of the third set of arrows. The fierce contest became more enthralling after one end, as both of them added 29 points to their tally and the scores read 117-116 after four ends. The unrelenting athletes made it seem like a neck-to-neck contest.

However, in the dying moments of the clash, Adel Zhexenbinovaof wandered off from the target, and that played in favour of Jyothi. Adel hit two 9s while the Indian archer scored a perfect 30. The topsy-turvy contest finally came to an end with Jyothi piping her opponent. The Indian Archer then faced her compatriot Aditi Gopichand Swami in the semi-final. This means India will be assured of at least a silver in the event.

Aditi, who is seeded fourth, dropped only a single point from 15 arrows to eliminate Amaya Amparo Cojuangco of Philippines 149-146 in the quarterfinals to set up an all-India semi-final. Overall, Indian archers are in the medal hunt in eight events including two in the individual section. It will be the second semi-final clash between the two archers in the last two months as they crossed paths once in the World Championships held in August this year. In the match, Aditi outplayed Jyothi with a scoreline of 149-145.

However, the tables turned this time around as Jyothi's unwavering precision guided her to victory. Both the archers were hitting bulls-eye but Aditi faltered in the last two ends and that opened the door to the final for her opponent.