World Archery Championships 2023: Aditi Swami, Ojas Deotale crowned compound world champions - all Indian winners
At 17, Indian archer Aditi Swami became the youngest to win an individual gold medal at the world championships. Ojas Pravin Deotale won in the men’s event.
Archery
India’s Aditi Gopichand Swami and Ojas Pravin Deotale won gold medals in the women's and men’s individual compound events, respectively, at the World Archery Championships 2023 in Berlin, Germany on Saturday.
India finished the Berlin archery meet with four medals - three golds and one bronze. All the medals were won by compound archers.
The medal tally was India’s best haul at the world championships. India had never bagged a gold medal since the championships began in 1931.
The 17-year-old Aditi Gopichand Swami, seeded sixth, defeated Andrea Becerra of Mexico 149-147 in the final to become the youngest archer to win an individual event at the senior world championships.
Aditi Gopichand Swami, an U18 world champion and world record holder, defeated fellow Indian Jyothi Surekha Vennam, seeded second, 149-145 in the semi-finals to book her place in the gold medal match.
Jyothi Surekha Vennam, meanwhile, defeated Ipek Tomruk of Turkey 150-146 to clinch the bronze medal in the women's individual compound event.
Another Indian archer, Parneet Kaur, was knocked out in the quarter-finals after losing to Jyothi Surekha Vennam.
Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Gopichand Swami had earlier teamed up to win the women's compound team event and clinched India’s first-ever gold at the archery world championships.
Later in the day, India’s Ojas Pravin Deotale came up trumps in the men’s individual compound event.
Ojas Pravin Deotale beat Poland’s Lukasz Przybylski 150-149 in a tightly-fought final to become the first Indian male archer to win a gold medal at the world championships.
The 21-year-old Ojas had earlier beaten Dutch archer Mike Schloesser, a former world champion, and Poland’s Przemyslaw Konecki in the semis and quarters, respectively.
India’s campaign at the Berlin meet concluded on Saturday. None of the Indian recurve archers made the medal rounds, thereby failing to win any Olympic quota places for the Paris 2024 Olympics on offer in Berlin. Only recurve archery competitions are held at the Olympics.
The World Archery Championships 2023 in Berlin is the first Paris 2024 Olympic qualifier event for archers.
World Archery Championships 2023: India’s medal winners
- Aditi Gopichand Swami - gold medal in women's individual compound
- Ojas Pravin Deotale - gold medal in men’s individual compound
- Jyothi Surekha Vennam - bronze medal in women's individual compound
- Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Gopichand Swami - gold medal in women's compound team