World archery championships 2021: Abhishek Verma, Jyothi Vennam impress on opening day

The Indian archery team endured a mixed bag of results in the ranking rounds of the World Archery Championships 2021 in Yankton, South Dakota, USA on Tuesday.

On a challenging day with gusts of wind reaching up to 32kmph, the Indian compound archers fared better than the recurve team.

Last edition’s bronze medallist Jyothi Surekha Vennam produced the best performance among Indians on the opening day. She scored 684 points out of 720 to take the sixth spot in the women’s compound ranking round.

In men's compound archery, former Asian Games medallist Abhishek Verma finished at the seventh spot with 695 points.

The young Indian recurve team, however, struggled to find their form in the ranking round.

In the women’s event, Ankita Bhakat just managed to crack the top 20 while reigning youth world champion Komalika Bari was 29th on the table, which was led by Tokyo 2020 Olympics champion An San of South Korea.

Meanwhile, Parth Salunke, at the 45th spot, was the highest ranked Indian in the men’s recurve field, which was led by former world champion Kim Woojin of South Korea.  Defending champion and local hero, Ellison Brady of the USA, was placed third.

After combining the scores from the individual ranking round, the seeds for the team events were also decided.

Following the below-par performance in the ranking round, India were the 16th-best side in the recurve mixed team but managed to win their first round match. The pair of Ankita Bhakat and Parth Salunke defeated Ukraine 6-0 in their opening contest.

The men’s recurve team is ranked 13th while the women are seventh.

On the other hand, the Indian compound archers rank fifth in the men’s category and seventh in the women. Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Vennam, meanwhile, are ranked fifth in the mixed team.

The team elimination matches began on Tuesday and will continue on Wednesday. The individual knockout rounds begin from Thursday.