Archery World Cup: Jyoti Surekha Vennam scores hat-trick of gold, compound archers win five medals. archery news

Asian Games champion Jyothi Surekha Vennam led India’s dominance with a rare hat-trick of golds as compound archers won five medals at the ongoing Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Shanghai on Saturday. World number three Jyoti defeated tournament top seed Andrea Becerra of Mexico 146-146 (9*-9) in a tight shoot-off and became the second Indian after Deepika Kumari to achieve triple gold medal in the World Cup. Became. Three-time Olympian and former world No. 1 Deepika had achieved the incredible feat at the Paris World Cup Stage 3 in June 2021.

For Jyoti, it is on par with her achievement at last year’s Hangzhou Asian Games, where the 27-year-old archer from Vijayawada had won three gold medals, winning the individual, women’s team and mixed team events.

Young Priyansh matched India’s stellar performance in the compound category by winning his first World Cup medal in the form of silver in the men’s individual category.

In his second Cup appearance, the 21-year-old found himself up against a formidable opponent in 2021 world champion Nico Wiener, who put in an impeccable performance and scored a maximum of 150 out of 150.

The 27-year-old Austrian shot all 10 arrows out of 15 shots to defeat the spirited Indian by three points.

In the morning session, India made a clean sweep of the team events, underscoring its superiority in the non-Olympic compound category, winning the men’s team, women’s team and mixed team events, two of which Jyoti was involved in.

Jyoti, Aditi Swami and Preneet Kaur opened their account with a gold medal after defeating Italy 236-225 in the women’s compound team event, losing just four points.

The men’s team of Abhishek Verma, Priyansh and Prathamesh Phuge then went one step better and missed the match by just two points on the way to defeat Netherlands’ Mike Schlosser, Syl Patter and Stef Willems 238-231.

The mixed team won when second seeds Jyoti and Verma held off their Estonian rivals – Liesel Jatmaa and Robin Jatmaa – to win 158-157 in a thrilling finish late on.

The top-seeded women’s compound team lost only four points from 24 arrows in the first match of the day to defeat sixth-seeded Italy.

In the first three ends of six arrows each, Jyoti, Aditi and Parneet missed perfect 10 only twice and took a comfortable 178-171 lead over Marcella Tonioli, Irene Franchini and Alyssa Rohner.

In the fourth end, the Indians lost two points but it did not matter much and they won the gold medal by a margin of 11 points.

The fourth-seeded men’s team produced a near-flawless performance to defeat their Dutch opponents.

He started with a perfect round of 60 and lost only two points in the next two ends, before sealing the victory with another perfect 60 in the final set of six arrows.

In the compound mixed team event, Jyoti and Abhishek started with a perfect round of 40 to take a three-point lead.

Three points down in the first end proved decisive for the Estonian archers, who shot three perfect rounds of 40-40, but the Indians held their nerve to take the point.

Leading 119-117, the Indian pair needed a minimum of 39 points out of a maximum of 40 in the final end. He did the same to give the country its third gold.

After this Jyoti returned as the individual champion in the afternoon session.

The Indian struggled to get perfect rounds in the first three ends and Andrea took an 88-87 lead.

Jyoti eventually managed a perfect round in the fourth end when she drilled three 10s with two X’s (closer to the centre), while Andrea also equaled the Indian to maintain her one-point lead.

In the fifth round, Andrea faltered under pressure and lost two points, while Jyoti scored 29 to take the score to 146-all, requiring a shoot-off.

Both shot nine all out in the shoot-off but Jyoti’s arrow was close to the inner-ring and she secured her third gold.

The medal rounds in the recurve category will be played on Sunday and India is eyeing two gold medals at the Olympics.

The Indian men’s team will face Olympic champion South Korea in the gold medal match.

Deepika is in contention for an individual medal and will play her semi-final against her South Korean opponent in the women’s recurve category.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)