Deepika, Atanu disappoint
Shanghai: India’s compound men’s archery team advanced Friday to the final of the season’s first World Cup here. The squad comprising Abhishek Verma, Chinna Raju Srither and Amanjeet Singh entered the summit clash round after getting the better of USA’s Reo Wilde, Steve Anderson and Braden Gellenthien 232-230 in a closely-fought semifinal.
Verma then coupled with Jyothi Surekha Vennam to enter the bronze medal play-off in mixed pair event.
However, Indian recurve archers, including Olympians Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari, cut a sorry figure as they bowed out of their respective events early.
Trailing by one point (116-117) after the second set, the compound men’s team bounced back to clinch the third 60-57 with all perfect 10s including one X (closest to centre). They then held on to their nerves in the decider to clinch the issue. They will now face 10th seeds Colombia for the gold.
In the mixed pair bronze medal match, Verma and Jyothi with take on the USA. The duo lost to second-seeded Korea 152 -158 in the semis.
In the recurve section, however, there were only failures. Atanu made a quarterfinal exit after going down to Dutch debutant Steve Wijler while Deepika also made an exit in the last eight round after losing to Hayakawa Ren of Japan 1-7.
The tecurve mixed combination of Atanu and Deepika made a quarterfinal exit after a 3-5 defeat to Russia.
The men’s recurve team lost to Japan 0-3 in the quarterfinals while their women counterpart, seeded sixth, made a first round exit after being beaten 2-6 by USA.
PTI
