Deepika Kumari-Atanu Das in mixed team final at Paris Archery World Cup

The Indian recurve mixed team of Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari booked its place in the final of the Archery World Cup Stage 3 in Paris.

On Thursday, the husband-wife duo defeated the Spanish team of Daniel Castro and Ines de Velasco 5-3 in a tight semi-final match to confirm a top-2 finish.

Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari started their day in fine fashion, breezing past Great Britain 6-0 in the pre-quarters.

In the quarter-finals, Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das beat the American pair of Brady Ellison and Casey Kaufhold by a similar scoreline.

The two will now face the Dutch team of Gabriela Schloesser and Sjef Van Den Berg for the gold medal on Sunday.

At the World Cup Stage 1 in Guatemala City back in April, Atanu Das had teamed up with Ankita Bhakat to win a bronze in the recurve mixed team event.

Tokyo-bound Deepika Kumari is also the lone Indian archer still competing in the individual recurve event. She reached the semi-finals of the women’s individual category on Wednesday.

Mixed compound team ousted

However, the Indian mixed compound team, featuring Jyothi Vennam and Abhishek Verma, could not move past the pre-quarterfinals.

The ninth-seeded Indian pair lost to Russia’s Anton Bulaev and Elizaveta Knyazeva in a close encounter, going down by a 155-154 scoreline.

In the individual compound event, Abhishek Verma is the lone Indian still in the fray as he made it to the semi-finals where he will face Russia’s Anton Bulaev.

Abhishek Verma overcame archers from Great Britain, Italy and Puerto Rico before defeating Denmark’s Martin Laursen in an evenly contested quarter-final that went into a tie-breaker.

Jyothi Vennam, meanwhile, put up a good fight in the women’s category before going down to Andrea Becerra of Mexico in the last eight.

The remaining Indian compound archers - Aman Saini, Rajat Chauhan, Saanchi Dhalla, Pragati and Akshita - went out in the elimination rounds.