Archery World Cup 2023: India’s Aditi Gopichand Swami breaks U-18 compound world record in Medellin

Indian archer Aditi Gopichand Swami broke the Under 18 world record in the women’s compound qualification round at the Archery World Cup 2023 stage 3 in Medellin, Colombia, on Tuesday.

The 16-year-old Aditi Gopichand Swami scored 711 points out of 720 to top the 72-arrow qualification and surpassed the previous world record of 705 set by USA’s Liko Arreola in May.

Aditi Gopichand Swami was also just two points short of the senior record of 713 held by Colombian Sara Lopez.

“I didn’t expect that I was going to shoot like that and that score, but now I’m very happy with that score because I’m only 16 years old,” Aditi Gopichand Swami, who is making her senior team debut at the Medellin meet, told World Archery.

Another Indian, Jyothi Surekha Vennam finished second in the qualifiers with 708. Praneet Kaur was sixth with 700. Avneet Kaur came in 28th with 684.

The Indian women’s compound team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Gopichand Swami and Parneet Kaur also topped the qualification with a cumulative 2119 points. They missed the world record set by the Republic of Korea (2120) last week at the Asia Cup in Singapore, by just one point.

In the men’s compound qualifiers, former World Cup champion Abhishek Verma, competing in his first archery World Cup of the year, was the best-placed Indian in eighth place with 707 points.

Ojas Pravin Deotale finished 13th with 703 and Prathamesh Samadhan Jawkar finished 19th with a point less. Rajat Chauhan, with 698, was 28th.

The Indian compound men’s team of Abhishek Verma, Ojas Pravin Deotale and Samadhan Jawkar finished in the second spot behind USA with 2112 points.