The mixed team added a silver at the stage two event in Yecheon (South Korea) on Saturday, while the Indian women’s compound trio of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur, and Aditi Swami won their third straight World Cup gold medal.
The world number one Indian compound women’s team dominated Turkey’s Hazal Burun, Ayse Bera Suzer and Begum Yuva right from the first end and sealed the gold without dropping a set, maintaining a healthy six-point margin (232-226) in a lopsided final.
The Asian Games champion Jyothi, however, was unable to add another gold medal to her collection as she and Priyansh blew a lead in the first round and lost the compound mixed team final by two points (155–153) to Olivia Dean and Sawyer Sullivan of the USA.
This made Jyothi, Parneet, and world champion Aditi the trio of winners of three World Cup gold medals.
They defeated Italy in the World Cup’s opening stage last month in Shanghai, and they also took home the gold at the competition’s stage four in Paris at the end of the previous year.
In the compound women’s team final, the second seeded Indians began with three X (arrow near to the centre) and dropped one point each in the next three arrows to edge out their fifth seeded rivals by one point in the first round.
In the next round of six arrows, the Indians showed complete supremacy, drilling in five perfect 10s with two X, and one 9 to stretch their lead by four points at the halfway mark.
Turkey fought hard in the penultimate round to shoot four 10s with one X to match India’s score of 58. But that did not matter much as the Indians were ahead by four points going into the fourth and final end.
They sealed it by scoring yet another 58, which was studded with three 10s and one X.
In a battle between world’s top-two ranked nations in the compound mixed team final, the USA made a remarkable comeback to win the gold and maintain their supremacy.
Jyothi and Priyansh raced to a two-point lead by shooting a near-flawless 39 points out of a maximum 40 in the first end.
But they struggled for consistency as Olivia and Sullivan bounced back to shoot 39 to edge out the Indians by two points to bring it level (76-all) at the halfway mark.
The No. 2 seed USA pair landed a perfect score of 40 in the third end to snatch a slender one-point lead as the Indians managed 39, dropping one point.
Jyothi and Priyansh needed to shoot a perfect 40 to force a shoot-off, but they managed a 38 as the USA pair scored 39 to seal the gold.
In this World Cup, Prathamesh Fuge, who is one victory away from finishing on the podium in the individual competition for the first time, is also predicted to win a third medal in the compound category. In an attempt to win his first individual World Cup medal, Fuge, who defeated 2021 world champion and world No. 6 Nico Wiener of Austria in the quarterfinals, will take on world No. 7 James Lutz.
Fuge competed for the Shanghai men’s team that won the gold medal.
