World Archery Championships 2023: Indian women’s compound team wins historic gold medal

The Indian women's compound team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Gopichand Swami won the gold medal at the World Archery Championships 2023 in Berlin, Germany, on Friday. It was India’s first-ever gold at the archery world championships in any category.

The Indian trio defeated the Mexican team of Dafne Quintero, Ana Sofía Hernandez Jeon and Andrea Becerra 235-229 in the final. In the semi-finals, the second-seed Indians knocked out defending champions Colombia 220-216.

Earlier, the Indian women's compound team defeated Chinese Taipei and Turkey in the quarter-finals and the pre-quarterfinals, respectively after receiving a bye in the first round.

Heading into the Berlin meet, India had won 11 medals - nine silver and two bronze - at the World Archery Championships.

This was India’s fourth consecutive medal in the compound women's team at the world championships, after silvers in 2017 and 2021 and a bronze in 2019. Jyothi Vennam has been a part of all four medal-winning teams.

In the compound men's team event, Abhishek Verma, Ojas Deotale and Prathamesh Jawkar lost to the Netherlands 230-235 to bow out from the quarter-finals.

In the mixed compound team event, Ojas Deotale and Jyothi Surekha Vennam suffered a 154-153 defeat in the quarter-finals at the hands of the USA.

Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Gopichand Swami will be in action in the individual women’s compound quarter-finals on Saturday while Ojas Deotale is the lone Indian in the top eight of the men’s category.

No Paris 2024 quota for India recurve archers

Earlier this week, Indian recurve archers endured a disappointing campaign and finished without a medal or any Olympic quota places for the Paris 2024 Summer Games. Recurve archery is the only discipline of archery featured at the Olympics.

The women's recurve team of Bhajan Kaur, Ankita Bhakat and Simranjeet Kaur, seeded 13th, lost to the Netherlands 2-6 in the quarter-finals. The men’s recurve team of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tushar Prabhakar Shelke and Mrinal Chauhan also lost in the quarters to the Republic of Korea.

A top-three finish in either of these two events would have won India three quota places – one for each member of the team – for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

India also registered a disappointing finish in the recurve mixed team event. The pair of Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat lost to Italy 4-5 in the pre-quarterfinals.

Dhiraj Bommadevara, seeded second, and Simranjeet Kaur lost in the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s and women’s individual recurve events, respectively, missing out on the individual Olympic quota berths on offer.

The World Archery Championships 2023 in Berlin is the first Paris 2024 Olympic qualifier event for archers.