Archery World Cup: Abhishek Verma, Jyothi Surekha Vennam best placed Indians after qualification round

Paris: Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam emerged the best placed Indians with their respective 11th and 15th place finishes in the qualification round of men’s and women’s compound sections in the Archery World Cup Stage 3 on Wednesday. In their first international competition in about two years, the Indian compound archers appeared rusty. The two-time World Cup champion Verma logged 706 points. Aman Saini was next best at 21st place (704) and was followed by Rajat Chauhan’s lowly 42nd (697) place finish. The trio tallied 2107 points to take the sixth place to set up an opening round clash against 11th placed Sweden. Indian compound women’s team finished sixth with 2066 points and will face 11th ranked France in the opening round elimination match. Individually, Jyothi shot 695 points to take 15th place while Saanchi Dhalla (690) and Akshita (681) occupied the 22nd and 32nd places respectively. In the mixed pair event, Verma and Jyothi are placed ninth and will get a bye into the last-16 where they will face eighth-ranked Russia. The Indian compound archers had last competed in the Asian Championships in Bangkok in November 2019 where the duo of Verma and Vennam had upset Chinese Taipei to clinch a gold medal. The compound team was forced to withdraw from the season-opening first stage of the World Cup in Guatemala after its coach’s “false positive” report of COVID-19.