Indian men's and women's compound teams reach finals of Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Shanghai

Indian men's and women's compound archery teams have stormed into the finals of the Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Shanghai on Wednesday.

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The Indian men's trio comprising Abhishek Verma, Priyansh, and Prathmesh Fuge faced a tough challenge from South Korea in the Archery World Cup semifinals but eventually emerged victorious with a score of 235-233. The first two ends were tied at 59-59 and 118-118.

It was in the third end that India managed to take a slender lead as the score stood at 176-175 in the Indian trio's favour. In the fourth and final end, the Indian male archers increased their lead by two points at 235-233 to emerge victorious. On the path to the Archery World Cup finals, the Indian men's team earlier defeated the Philippines and Denmark in the first and second rounds. They will face the Netherlands in the finals on April 27. 

On the other hand, the Indian women's team, featuring Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Gopichand, and Parneet Kaur, defeated Estonia 235-230 to reach the finals. They started the game on the back foot as Estonia took a slim lead at 60-59 in the end 1. In the end two, Indian archers did well to gain a three-point lead at 118-115. By the end of the third end, Indian women increased their lead by six points and eventually won the contest 235-230. Earlier, the women's team defeated Turkey in the second round after topping the ranking round. The Indian women's team is set to clash with Italy next. 

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India has sent a sixteen-member archery team of eight men and eight women for the first phase of the Archery World Cup to be held from the 23rd to 28th of this month. Based on the performances of archers in the first two phases, the Indian team will be selected for the third phase of the World Cup in Antalya to be held from June 18 to 23. The Antalya competition will be a competition for recurve archers to qualify for the final ahead of the Paris Olympics 2024. The winners of the individual events will qualify for the Archery World Cup Finals to be held in Tlaxcala, Mexico in October.