Asian Archery C'ships: Mohit shines, sets up semifinal clash with Abhishek Verma

India was assured of a spot in the compound individual men’s final as the experienced Abhishek Verma set up a semifinal clash with Mohit.

Abhishek Verma had defeated Mohit in the National championships title clash. (File Image)

Young Mohit Deshwal stunned two World championship medalists, top-ranked Yonghee Choi of Korea and No. 8 Amir Kazempour of Iran, on his way to reach the compound individual men’s semifinals at the Asian archery championships here on Monday.

India was assured of a spot in the compound individual men’s final as the experienced Abhishek Verma set up a semifinal clash with Mohit. Abhishek had defeated Mohit in the National championships title clash.

Mohit, who was ranked 16 in the qualification round, scored consistently to defeat Duc Loc Pham of Vietnam (149-141), Choi (148-148, 10-9) and Kazempour (148-144) to reach the last-four.

Abhishek also showed his good form to get past Vietnamese Van Duc Trinh (149-139), compatriot Aman Saini (150-143) and Iranian Mohammadsaleh Palizban (149-147) to make it to the last-four.

Rishabh Yadav was edged out (145-145, 9*-9) by Kazakh archer Sergey Khristich in the quarterfinals.

In the compound women’s individual, only V. Jyothi Surekha, the Worlds silver medallist, out of three quarterfinalists could get into the semifinals. Jyothi beat Le Phuong Thao of Vietnam (146-141) and compatriot Parneet Kaur 148-146 to enter the medal round.

Priya Gurjar lost to Korean Yoohyun Oh of Korea 145-144 in the quarters.

In the recurve women’s individual event, three Indians went down to their Korean rivals in the quarterfinals. World youth champion Komalika Bari, Madhu Vedwan and Ridhi lost to Su Jung Ryoo (6-4), Haejin Lim (6-0) and Yejin Oh (6-0) respectively.

Olympian Pravin Jadhav and National champion Parth Salunkhe also lost to Koreans Woo Tack Han (6-4) and Pil-Joong Kim (6-4) respectively in the recurve men’s individual quarterfinals.