Bangkok [Thailand], November 9 (ANI): Indian womens’ recurve and men’s compound archery teams secured bronze medals at the Asian Archery Championships on Wednesday.
The team of Tisha Punia, Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat beat Chinese Taipei by 5-1 in the bronze medal match of the women’s recurve team. Chinese Taipei was led by 2016 Rio Olympics bronze medalist Chien-Ying Lei, as per Olympics.com.
The Indian trio has lost to South Korea by 6-2 in the semis, with the opposition led by current Olympic champion An San. This loss ended India’s hopes for the first Paris 2024 Olympic quota in archery.
The event is the third qualifier for the Paris Olympics for Indian archers. The top-placed team per gender gets the Paris Olympic quotas.
The men’s team consisting of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Pravin Jadhav and Olympian Tarundeep Rai was eliminated in the quarter-finals after losing to Kazakhstan 5-4.
Indian archers failed to bag Olympic quotas at the World Archery Championships and Asian Games earlier this year.
In the non-Olympic compound archery, the men’s team featuring 2018 Asian Games champion Abhishek Verma, Prathamesh Fuge and U21 world champion Priyansh beat Chinese Taipei by 29-28 in a thrilling shoot-off to gain bronze after scores were tied at 235 after two sets.
The medal-winning men’s compound trio was placed second in the qualifying round and got a bye till the quarterfinals, where they beat Vietnam 236-230. In the semifinals, India lost to Kazakhstan by 237-236 to enter in contention of a bronze medal.
The women’s compound team of Aditi Swami, Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Parneet Kaur earned a place in the gold medal match after beating Thailand by 228-217 in the semifinals. India will take on Chinese Taipei in the final on Thursday.
Surekha and Parneet also reached the finals of the individual women’s compound and will go head-to-head in a title clash on Thursday. Aditi topped the qualification but lost to Bangladesh’s Bonna Akter in a shocker during the third round.
Aditi however made up for the loss by moving to the finals of the mixed-team event alongside Priyansh by beating Kazakhstan’s Adel Zhexenbinova and Andrey Tyutyun 157-155 in the semi-finals. On Thursday, they will take on Thailand’s Kanoknapus Kaewchomphu and Lertruangsilp Nawayut.
Abhishek Verma will be aiming for bronze in the individual men’s compound event, after a loss by 148-146 to Andrey Tyutyun of Kazakhstan in the semi-finals.
Asian Archery Championships are being held from November 3 to 10. (ANI)
