Archery World Cup: Indian men’s recurve team reaches finals, hopes for gold after 13 years. Loktej Sports News

New Delhi, 21 April (Hindustan Times). The Indian men’s recurve team on Thursday advanced to the finals of the ongoing Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Antalya, Turkey. India entered the final after registering three consecutive wins. The Indians first defeated Japan 5–4 and then defeated Chinese Taipei and ninth seed Netherlands by identical 6–2 margins to enter the final. With this, the Indian team has reached the final of the men’s recurve team event for the first time in nine years.

The Indian trio of Atanu Das, B Dheeraj and Tarundeep Rai will take on China in the gold medal match on Sunday. If the Indian trio wins the gold medal, it will be after 13 years that India won gold in the men’s recurve team event.

Apart from this, India’s leading compound archer Jyoti Surekha Vennam entered the individual semi-finals. After topping qualifying with a world record-equalling score, former World Championship silver medalist Surekha Vennam will take on England’s world number one Ella Gibson in the semi-finals on Saturday.

The men’s recurve team, which received a bye into the first round after qualifying as the fourth seed, faced a tough challenge to start with a win. India beat 13th seed Japan 5-4 in the shoot-off with a 29-28 win.

Subsequently, the Indian trio defeated 12th seed Chinese Taipei and ninth seed Netherlands by identical 6–2 margins to enter the final. The Indian men’s recurve team easily defeated Chinese Taipei. The Indian won 6–2 (55–54, 57–54, 51–53, 58–56) with four 10’s including an ace.

India next took on the Netherlands, who were brimming with confidence after ousting top seed and tournament hosts Turkey (6-0), a team that included reigning Olympic champion Mette Gajoz. The Dutch team took a 2-0 lead but the Indians came back strongly to win 6-2 (56-58, 57-53, 57-55, 56-54).

After reaching the final, Das said, “We came here without any expectations. We wanted to do our best. But now we are expecting gold.”

Coming back after nearly two years, Das said, “It feels amazing. Last year was not my year, but this year I came out with a good performance. I felt some pressure. Every round is different. Every time I shoot I was calculating the wind when I got to the line. I directed my team-mates who followed me. We did a proper teamwork.”

Incidentally, the tournament is being held in the same Mediterranean seaside resort of Antalya where the Indian men’s recurve team won gold for the first time in the World Cup in 2008. The team of Jayant Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia defeated Malaysia 218-215 to win the recurve men’s team gold for the first time in the World Cup.

Since then, the Indian men’s recurve team has won five gold medals at the World Cup. He last won a World Cup gold medal in the men’s recurve team event in Shanghai in 2010. India reached the final twice in 2014 – Stage 2 Medellin and Stage 4 Wroclaw – but on both occasions the team returned with silver medals. In Medellin, India lost to Korea in a tie-breaker, while Mexico won the gold medal with a 5–3 win in Wroclaw.