Archery World Cup: Jyothi Surekha Vennam bags a hat-trick of medals

Kolkata: It was a busy day for Jyothi Surekha Vennam who claimed a hat-trick of medals in the Archery World Cup Stage 4 in Madrid on Saturday. Jyothi remained the sole podium finisher from India as the recurve archers once again fared poorly.The 29-year-old Jyothi opened India’s medal hunt with a silver when she along with Parneet Kaur and 16-year-old debutant Prithika Pradeep went down 225-227 to Chinese Taipei in the women’s compound team final.

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Top seed India made a strong start to lead 170-169 after the third end, but a wayward 7 in the final-end proved costly as the trio lost the fourth end 55-58 and thus the match as well.

Jyothi next teamed up with Rishabh Yadav to outclass 10th-seeded El Salvador duo of Paola Corado and Douglas Vladimir Nolasco 156153 to claim bronze in the compound mixed team event.

The teams were tied 39-39 after the first end, but Jyothi and Rishabh, who set a qualifying world record with a total of 1431 points on the opening day, pulled ahead by two points after the second and maintained their lead till the end to seal victory.Multiple Asian Games gold medallist Jyothi continued her good show in the individual category too when she got past Antalya-leg World Cup runner-up Han Seungyeon of Korea narrowly 144-143 in the semifinal.

In spite of hitting a perfect score (30) in the first two ends, getting 28 in the next three ends helped the Korean make the final.India, however, missed out on another medal when her teammate Parneet, a 2023 Asian champion, lost to reigning European champion Ella Gibson 143-146 in the last-four clash. Gibson proved to be Jyothi’s nemesis too in the final as the Andhra girl fought hard to lose 147-148 to settle for silver.Parneet too failed to make the podium losing the bronze medal playoff match 143-146 to Seungyeon.