Young compound archers Prathamesh Jawkar and Avneet Kaur shone in tough conditions to topple top seeds and book their berths in individual men and women semifinals of the Archery World Cup Stage-2 in Shanghai on Thursday.
The 19-year-old Jawkar and 18-year-old Avneet will compete in the medal rounds on Saturday.
Jawkar shot consistently to beat Indonesia’s Dhany Diva Pradana 146-144, top-seeded Korean Kim Jongho 149-147, Danish Martin Damsbo 149-146 and eighth seed Kroean Choi Yonghee 149-148 to reach the last four, where he will take on Estonia’s Robin Jaatma.
Other male archers, Ojas Deotale, Rishabh Yadav and Rajat Chauhan, exited in the first round.
The 16th-seeded Avneet, who received a first round bye, won two shoot-offs on her way to the semifinals. She defeated Mexico’s Mariana Bernal 145-145 (10-9), top-seeded Korean Oh Yoohyun 142-142 (10*-10, shot closer to centre) and Mexico’s Dafne Quintero 147-144 to set up a last-four clash with Great Britain’s World No. 1 Ella Gibson, who edged out Aditi Swami 142-141 in the quarterfinals.
Jyothi Surekha beaten
Stage-1 gold medallist V. Jyothi Surekha was beaten by Korean Su A. Cho 144-144 (10*-10) via tie-breaker.
In recurve competitions, the Indian men’s team, comprising B. Dhiraj, Atanu Das and Neeraj Chauhan, began with a bye, beat Chinese Taipei 5-3 before losing to top-ranked Korea 0-6.
The country’s women’s team, including Simranjeet Kaur, Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat, got a bye but lost to Indonesia 1-5.
