Indian men’s recurve team storms into the World Cup final

The Indian trio of Atanu Das, B. Dhiraj, and Tarundeep Rai helped the country reach the final of the recurve men’s team event at the Archery World Cup Stage-1 in Antalya on Thursday. India will play second-slotted China for the honours on Sunday

The fourth-ranked Indian side, which got a first-round bye, edged past Japan 5-4 (29-28) in a keenly-fought shoot-off before beating Chinese Taipei 6-2 and the Netherlands 6-2 in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively to make it to the title clash.

The 11th-placed Indian women’s team, consisting of Bhajan Kaur, Simranjeet Kaur and Ankita Bhakat, defeated Brazil 5-4 (24-19) via shoot-off but lost 2-6 to Spain in the next round.

Top-ranked archer V. Jyothi Surekha performed consistently to reach the compound women’s individual semifinals. She got the better of Switzerland’s Myriam Hasler 145-137, America’s Danelle Lutz 145-141, Mexico’s Ana Sofia Hernandez Jeon 145-138 and Denmark’s Tanja Gellenthien 147-142 to set up a last-four date with Great Britain’s three-time World Cup gold medallist Ella Gibson on Saturday.

Avneet Kaur lost to World champion Sara Lopez 141-141 (10-9) via shoot-off in the third round. Sakshi Chaudhary and Aditi Swami crashed out in the second round.

Three Indian compound male archers, Ojas Deotale, Rajat Chauhan and Prathamesh Jawkar, exited in the quarterfinals.

Deotale, who went past top-seeded Mathias Fullerton 144-144 (10-9) on his way to the last eight, fell to USA’s Mohammad Jewaidi Mazuki 148-150.

Jawkar was beaten by former World champion Dutchman Mike Scholesser 147-145, while Rajat was ousted by Slovakia’s Jozef Bosansky 144-144 (10-9). Rishabh Yadav lost in the first round.