Archery World Cup Stage 3: Indian compound women’s team achieves hat-trick of gold medals in 2024, Priyansh wins silver

The Indian trio of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur beat Estonia in the title clash to win a hat-trick of gold medals at the Archery World Cup.

FILE PHOTO (from right to left): India’s Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur. | Photo Credit: PTI

The Indian trio of V. Jyothi Surekha, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Swami claimed its third consecutive compound women’s team gold medal of the season in the Archery World Cup Stage-3 in Antalya, Turkey, on Saturday.

Priyansh took the silver medal in the men’s individual event as Indian compound archers secured two medals.

The top-ranked Indian women’s side shot well to take a slender one-point lead in the opening end and built on it to beat Estonia, represented by Lisell Jaatma, Meeri-Marita Paas and Maris Tetsmann, 232-229 in the title clash.

The Indian women, who clinched the World title and the Asian Games gold last year, hit the bulls eye five out of six times in the penultimate end and four times in the final end to assert their supremacy on an extremely hot day. This was their fourth straight World Cup Stage gold medal, including the Stage-4 gold in Paris in September last year.

“Despite the heat, we kept our focus on our shots and rhythm,” individual World champion Aditi told World Archery.

Priyansh, who got a one-point lead in the opening end, recorded a perfect score to pip Denmark’s European champion Mathias Fullerton 150-149 in the semifinals. 

The 21-year-old Indian lost to World No.1 Dutchman Mike Schloesser 149-148 in a keenly-fought final. Priyansh missed a 10 by a whisker to give away a one-point advantage to Schloesser in the first end. He gave the Dutch a close chase before both scored a nine apiece in the final end and the experienced Schloesser walked away with the gold.