India in recurve team final

Kolkata: The men’s recurve archers ensured India’s first medal at the season-opening World Cup Stage 1 at Antalya by making it to the gold-medal match on Thursday. The Olympian duo Atanu Das and Tarundeep Rai, along with Dhirah Bommadevara, won three straight matches to set up a Sunday summit clash with China, who are making a comeback to international competition after a gap of almost four years.India got past Japan 5-4 in the second round after both sides won two sets each to be tied 4-4. In the tie-break, India prevailed by a mere one point winning 29-28. However, in the quarters, India had it easy against 12th seed Chinese Taipei winning 6-2. The trio maintained the momentum against ninth seed the Netherlands in the semifinal too winning 6-2 after being down in the first set.“It’s my first outdoor tournament for the country after the Tokyo Games, but it felt just like yesterday,” Das said. “The wind was tricky but I enjoyed the challenge,” he added.However, their women counterpart of Bhajan Kaur, Simranjeet Kaur and Ankita Bhakat were eliminated in the second round going down to Spain 2-6 after beating Brazil via tie-break 5-4 in the opening round.Jyothi Surekha Vennam remained in contention for an individual medal becoming the only Indian women compound archer to make the semifinals. The Andhra girl continued her good show after equalling the record qualifying score of 713 by winning four matches to set up a last-four clash with Ella Gibson of Great Britain on Saturday.However, it was heartbreak in the men’s compound event as all the three Indians — Ojas Deotale, Rajat Chauhan and Prathamesh Jawkar — were eliminated in the quarterfinals.