Indian recurve men, compound women enter finals at Asian Championships

Dhaka, Nov 10 (PTI) Indian recurve archers are on the verge of ending their long medal drought at the Asian Archery Championships, setting up a gold medal clash with South Korea after a hard-fought semifinal win on Monday.

The defending champions compound women's team also stormed into their successive final as India assured themselves of two medals in the continental meet.

The men's recurve trio of Yashdeep Bhoge, Atanu Das and Rahul displayed grit and composure to overcome a third set scare and down Kazakhstan 5-3 in a tense four-set encounter.

The Indians took the opening set 54-52, edging their rivals by two points. The Kazakh trio of Ilfat Abdullin, Dastan Karimov and Alexandr Yeremenko bounced back strongly in the second, firing four 10s to draw level at 58-58.

The pressure was evident on the Indians in the third set as an errant 8 proved costly, allowing Kazakhstan to take it 56-54 and make it three-all.

However, Bhoge and his teammates showed fine temperament under pressure, shooting a near-perfect 57 in the fourth set while restricting their opponents to 52 to clinch the match 5-3 and secure a place in the final where they will face heavyweights South Korea, who got the better of Uzbekistan 6-2.

The South Koreans have sent a second-string side with lesser-known names and it remains to be seen if India are able to overcome their long-standing nemesis.

It was business as usual for the formidable Indian compound women's team, who are eyeing back-to-back continental titles.

The trio of Deepshikha, Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Prathika Pradeep comfortably defeated hosts Bangladesh 234-227 to enter the final.

They will now face second seeds Korea, who overcame Iran 237-227 in the other semifinal.

India will thus feature in both the recurve men's and compound women's team finals, keeping alive hopes of multiple gold medals at the ongoing continental meet.

The individual and mixed team events are yet to get underway.

At the Bangkok Asian Champoinships two years back, India had finished second behind Korea, returning with three gold, one silver and three bronze.

Six of the seven medals had come in compound events. The women's team had bagged the solitary medal, a bronze, in the recurve section. PTI TAP SSC SSC