Yecheon: World No 1 India women’s compound archery team stormed into the final to remain in the hunt for a successive World Cup gold medal in Yecheon, South Korea, on Wednesday.
The women’s trio of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Swami, who clinched the gold in Shanghai Stage 1 leg last month, ousted World No. 4 USA 233-229 in the semifinal.
India will take on World No 7 Turkey in the gold medal clash on Saturday. Turkey had stunned top-seed and local favourites South Korea 234-233 in the other semifinal.
It was an overall easy sailing for the Indian women’s team, which got a bye into the quarters after finishing second in the qualifying round. They eliminated Italy 236-234 in the last-eight.
The world number one men’s team of Priyansh, Prathamesh Fuge and veteran Abhishek Verma, who had slipped to fourth in the qualifying round on Tuesday, lost to lowly-ranked Australia 133-133 (10-10*) in a shoot-off.
Meanwhile, the veteran duo of Tarundeep Rai and Deepika Kumari finished fourth and sixth in their respective qualifiers as recurve competition got underway.
The 2010 Asian Games silver medalist Rai shot 681 points for a sixth spot in rankings, while Dhiraj Bommadevara narrowly missed a top-10 finish on X (closer to centre) count after five archers shot 678 with the Indian finishing 11th.
The Army duo’s solid finish ensured Indian recurve men’s team No 2 seeding in their title defence. India and top-seeded South Korea will begin their campaign at the opposite ends of the draw. Agencies
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