Indian women's recurve team sails into Archery World Cup final in Guatemala
The men's team, however, bowed out in the quarter-finals after narrowly going down to Spain.
The Indian women's recurve team comprising Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat and Komalika Bari put on commanding displays to storm into the final at the Archery World Cup 2021 Stage 1 at Guatemala City on Friday.
The Indian team topped the ranking rounds to qualify for the elimination rounds. In the quarter-finals at the Sports Complex Los Arcos, the Indians sent hosts Guatemala packing with a 6-0 result before overcoming Spain with an identical scoreline in the semi-finals.
In the final, they will battle it out with the second-seeded Mexican team featuring Ana Vazquez, Alejandra Valencia and London 2012 women's individual recurve silver medallist Aida Roman for a top podium finish.
Alejandra Valencia will incidentally also be Deepika Kumari's opponent in the women's individual recurve semi-finals.
The Mexicans beat Colombia 5-1 in the quarters and Germany 6-2 in the semis en route to the final.
However, there was disappointment in store in the men's recurve team event.
The Indian men’s team of Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav and Tarundeep Rai qualified for the final eight after being placed third in the qualifiers but were upset 5-4 by Spain - the sixth seeds - in the quarter-finals.
The Indians made a slow start, conceding the first two sets 56-58, 54-56 to go 4-0 down but rallied back to level 4-4 after winning the next two sets 58-56, 58-55.
In the shoot-offs, however, India fell 26-27.
The Spanish team of Pablo Acha, Miguel Alvarino Garcia and Daniel Castro each shot a nine in the crunch final round while the Indians shot one 10 and two eights.
While the women’s recurve team has already been guaranteed a medal, Indian archers are also still in contention for three more podium finishes.
Couple Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari are in the men’s and women’s individual recurve semi-finals, respectively, while in the mixed team recurve event, the team of Atanu Das and Ankita Bhakat are set for a bronze medal playoff against the USA.