Antalya (Turkey), June 22
The Indian compound women’s archery team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur continued their imperious form this season, securing a hat-trick of World Cup gold medals with a win over Estonia, even as Priyansh settled for a silver here on Saturday.
Priyansh narrowly lost the men’s final to world number one Mike Schloesser. Entering the final as the top-seeded team, the women’s trio displayed their prowess by defeating Estonia’s Lisell Jaatma, Meeri-Marita Paas, and Maris Tetsmann 232-229 in a one-sided final of the stage 3 event.
The women’s compound team has been invincible this season, winning all three World Cup stages.
They previously secured gold at stage 1 in Shanghai and stage 2 in Yecheon in April and May respectively, making them unbeaten champions in the 2024 World Cup series. Later in the day, rising compound archer Priyansh failed to defeat Dutch heavyweight Schloesser for a second time this season and settled for a runner-up finish. Priyansh, who showed flawless shooting to enter the final, dropped a point in the opening set and could not overcome the deficit as Schloesser shot a series of 10s to clinch the match 149-148.
It was in the final set that the Dutch archer dropped a point as Priyansh needed a perfect 30 score to clinch the gold, but the Indian missed one point to finish second best.
In the semifinal, the 21-year-old landed all his 15 arrows in the perfect-10 ring to knock out World No. 2 Mathias Fullerton by one point, thus also exacting his defeat of the last World Cup.
At the stage 2 World Cup in Yecheon last month, the Danish archer had eliminated Priyansh in the pre-quarters in a tight shoot-off finish.
For Priyansh, this was his second World Cup silver. At the season-opening World Cup in Shanghai in April this year, Priyansh had lost to World No. 8 Nico Wiener of Austria 147-150 in the final.
India will be aiming for three medals in the recurve finals on Sunday.
Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara are in the hunt for two medals, having advanced to their respective individual semifinals.
The mixed team of Dhiraj and Bhajan will take on their Mexico rivals in the bronze playoff.
