The dream of winning a gold in archery yet again remains intact as the Indian women’s and mixed pair compound teams fall short of the ultimate prize at the World Championship.
Ever since Deepika Kumari made it to the quarters of the Tokyo Olympics, every Indian is waiting for a Gold to happen in Archery. However, it was not to be as the Columbian team beat us to it at the world championship.
NEWS. Colombian compounds reassert dominance at #WorldChampionships https://t.co/2BGHWoMfm7 #archery pic.twitter.com/QcUpI698CN
— World Archery (@worldarchery) September 25, 2021
The mixed duo of Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Vennam started off the round with a one-point lead but ended up fourth in the ranking round.
The women’s team of Jyothi, Muskan Kirar, and Priya Gurjar were defeated by a margin of five points against their Columbian rivals, Sara Lopez, Alejandra Usquiano, and Nora Valdes. After the opening end, they were locked at 58-58, but the Indian team failed to take a lead as two of our archers hit the red circle. From there onwards, the Columbians made a dash for it, as they shot 8 ten-pointers and from 12 in their last two ends, to win what was their third women’s title and first since 2017.
Indian didn’t fare well even in the mixed pair event. They could only manage to shoot two 9s and one 8 in the second end, eventually squandering the one-point lead they had over their opponent. As a result, they lost the match with four points. Their Columbian adversaries on the other hand shot ten perfect 10s from 16 shots.
With this win, Columbia has reinstated their supremacy in Compound archery and has taken their medal tally to four golds in World Championships. Notably, India is the only team that has made it to the podium most time (10) and is yet to win gold. Appearing in eight finals, Indians have ended up with silvers each time.
Despite missing out on gold, India is still in contention for three medals. The remainder of the matches shall be played on Sunday.
Colombia 🇨🇴 is the compound mixed team world champion! 🥇🙌 #WorldChampionships pic.twitter.com/OPzPte7WQE
— World Archery (@worldarchery) September 24, 2021
