Archery World Cup: Indian recurve men's team secures medal by advancing in the final

The Indian trio of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Rai, and Pravin Ramesh Jadhav have secured a medal by reaching the men's recurve final in the first phase of the Archery World Cup in China on Thursday. 

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

Indian men's recurve team defeated Italy by 5-1 without losing a single set. In the gold medal match to be held on Sunday, India will face the Tokyo Olympics gold medal winning team Korea. The top-seeded Korean trio of Kim Woojin, Lee Woo Seok and Kim Je Deok defeated their Chinese Taipei rivals Tan Chih-Chun, Lin Zih-Siang and Tai Yu-Hsuan in straight sets 6-0 (57-50, 58-56, 58-54) to reach the Archery World Cup finals. 

Earlier, after getting a bye in the initial phase of the season, Indian players performed amazingly. Second seeded Indians recovered from the first set defeat to 15th seeded Indonesia 5-3 (55-56, 54-54, 55-51, 55). After this, they returned to their best performance against seventh seeded Spain and won 5-1 (59-54, 56-55, 55-55) to reach the semi-finals.

Indian women's recurve team performed disappointingly 

The Indian women's team consisting of Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat and Bhajan Kaur, who had secured sixth rank in the qualifiers, had a very poor performance and lost the opening match to Mexico after giving up a 3-1 lead.

After getting a bye in the first round, the Indian women's team took a 3-1 lead in the second set, but their score was not equal and they lost by 3-5 (50-50, 55-49, 51-54, 52-54). They won the red ring 7 twice in the opening set, while in the third set, they reached the sixth ring and could only score two eights in the final set.

India also ensured medal in compound individual category

India also ensured a medal in the compound individual category. Former world champion Priyansh and Asian Games gold medalist Jyothi Surekha Vennam reached the individual semi-finals. Jyothi defeated compatriot Avneet Kaur at 143-142 and made it to the individual semi-finals. Now she will face Meeri-Martia Paas of Estonia on Saturday.

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While Priyansh pulled off a big upset by knocking out the world no.1, Mike Schlosser of the Netherlands, in a shootoff (149(10)-149(9)) at the pre-quarterfinals. He followed this up with another shootoff victory (145-145(20-19)) over Türkiye's Batuhan Akçaoğlu to reach the semis. He will face Nick Kappers of the USA in the semis on April 27th.

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