Asian Archery Championships: Abhishek Verma, Jyothi make individual semis
All recurve archers, including Tokyo Olympian Pravin Jadhav, were eliminated in the individual events.
It was a day of contrasting fortunes for the recurve and compound Indian archers at the Asian Archery Championships 2021 in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Monday.
Three compound archers - Abhishek Verma, Mohit (both men’s) and Jyothi Vennam (women’s) - made the individual semi-finals.
Asian Games and World Cup gold-medallist Abhishek Verma got a bye in the opening round. He beat Vietnam’s Trinh Van Duc 149-139 in the second round and then got the better of compatriot Aman Saini 150-143 in the third.
He then beat Iran’s Mohammadsaleh Palizban 149-147 in the quarter-final.
Mohit beat Pham Duc Loc of Vietnam, South Korea’s Choi Yonghee and Iranian Amir Kazempour enroute the semis.
Abhishek Verma and Mohit will face each other in the men’s individual compound semi-finals.
India’s Rishabh Yadav, who finished third in qualifying, comfortably won his second and third round matches but fell to Kazakhstan’s Sergey Khristich in the quarter-final.
Both archers shot identical scores of 145 and in the shoot-off, both scored 9. However, Khristich’s arrow was closer to the 10 and he thus progressed.
World championships silver-medallist Jyothi Vennam meanwhile, was the only Indian to make the semis in the women’s individual compound.
Jyothi Vennam beat Vietnam’s Le Phuong Thao 146-141 in the second round and then defeated compatriot Parneet Kaur 148-146 in the quarter-final.
India’s Priya Gurjar fell in the quarter-finals while Muskan Kirar lost in the second round.
Indian recurve archers eliminated
None of India’s eight recurve archers - both men and women - could make it to the semis of their respective individual events.
In the men’s individual recurve, Tokyo Olympian Pravin Jadhav and reigning national champion Parth Salunkhe were eliminated in the quarter-finals.
Pravin Jadhav, who had beaten fellow Indian Sukhchain Singh in the third round, fell 6-4 to South Korea’s Han Woo Tack in the last eight.
Parth Salunkhe also lost to a South Korean Kim Pil-Joong 6-4 in the quarter-finals.
Kapil - who was the highest finishing Indian in qualifying with fifth - lost 6-5 to Sanzhar Mussayev of Kazakhstan in the third round.
Youth world champion Ankita Bhakat was stunned 6-4 by Bangladesh’s Diya Siddique in the second round of the women’s individual recurve.
Meanwhile, Komalika Bari, Madhu Vedwan and Ridhi all lost to South Korean opponents in the quarter-finals.