New Delhi, 6 October: It turned out to be a golden day for the Indian archers as their men’s and women’s team compound archery events claimed the top podium places at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Thursday.
The women’s team, the reigning world champions in the category, comprising Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur, edged out the Chinese Taipei team of Yi-Hsuan Chen, I-Jou Huang and Lu-Yun Wand 230-229 in a hard-fought final to bag the gold medal.
The top-seeded Indian women’s team received a bye in the opening round before easing past Hong Kong China 231-220 in the quarter-finals. In the semis, the Indian trio, put it across Indonesia 233-229. Korea completed the podium after defeating Indonesia in the bronze medal match.
It was India’s first women’s team gold medal in compound archery at the Asian Games after finishing with a bronze at Incheon 2014 and a silver at Jakarta 2018. Jyothi who will be competing in the compound women’s individual final later this week, has been part of all three medal-winning teams.
Jyothi has already won two gold medals at the Asian Games archery events. She partnered with Ojas Pravin Deotale to pick up the mixed team compound gold on Wednesday.
Later in the day, the men’s team, featuring Ojas Pravin Deotale, Abhishek Verma and Prathamesh Jawkar, followed suit with another top podium finish.
The Indians seeded second in the event, defeated top-seed Korean trio Jaehoon Joo, Jaewon Yang and Kim Jongho 235-230 in the gold medal match.
Earlier, the Indians had beaten Bhutan 235-221 and Chinese Taipei 235-224 in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, respectively. The trio then accounted for Singapore by a 235-219 margin in the pre-quarterfinals at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre on Monday.
Ojas Pravin Deotale and Abhishek Verma will also meet in the individual men’s compound archery final on Saturday.