Indian archers assured themselves of a second medal in the World Cup Stage 3 with ace duo of Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam sailing into the compound mixed team final in Paris on Friday. (More Sports News)
A day after Deepika Kumari and Co. cruised into the final of recurve women's team event to confirm their first medal of the meet, the compou🃏nd mixed pair of Verma and Jyothi followed suit, defeating Estonia's Robin Jaatma🧸 and Lisell Jaatma 156-151 in a lopsided semi-final.
The Indian duo ꧑will face fifth seed France in the compound mixed team final o♒n Saturday.
Making a comeback after more than seven months, world number 3 Jyothi, who was sidelined in the Asian Games trial, is also in the hunt for an individual me🔯dal, having advanced into the semi-final.
A day after Lisell gave Jyothi a tough fight in the individual quarterfinal, the Estonian along with her teammate Robin 😼failed to create much prꦬessure and slipped behind after the Indian pair had a perfect first round.
Maintainin♏g their consistency, Verma and Jyothi extended their lead to five points in the third round that proved decisive, even as their rivals levelled it 38-38 in the final set of arro💦ws.
Having got a bye into the pre-quarters, third seeded ꦛIndia began their mixed team campaign eliminating Puerto Rico by a handsome eight-point margin (158-150).
In the quarters, the ⭕Indian duo faced their stiffest challenge from El Salvador's Roberto Hernandez and Sofia Paiz who stretcheꦦd it to shoot-off.
But Verma and Jyothi kept their ca꧂lm to oust their 11th seed opponents, drilling in an X which made the difference in the shoot-off after their final🌟 scoreline read an identical 155-155 (19-19).
A new-l♓ook recurve mixed pair of Tarundeep Rai and Ankita Bhakat, however, made a first r♓ound exit going down to lower-ranked Kazakhstan 4-5 (34-36 37-33 37-35 35-36) (18-20) in a shoot-off.
The Indian duo was inconsistentꦑ and squandered a 4-2 lead from being 0-2 down as the Kazakh bounced back to force a shootoff.
In the shootoff, Rai and Ankita managed twoಌ 9s as th🧔e Kazakh pair sealed it with two perfect 10s.
Ankita made the cut a🍃t the expense of world number 3 Deepika Kumari, who slipped in the qualification round.
