WUG: Indian archers bring more glory; half-marathoners disappoint

Rhine-Ruhr, Essen (Germany), Jul 26 (PTI) Sahil Jadhav produced a near-flawless performance under pressure to clinch the men's compound individual gold as Indian archers wrapped up their World University Games campaign with an impressive haul of five medals here on Saturday.

With a mixed team gold, men's team silver, women's team bronze, and two individual medals -- Jadhav's gold and Parneet's silver -- India concluded their archery campaign at the Games on a high, showcasing depth and promise in compound events.

With one more day to go, India have two gold, two silver and three bronze in the showpiece event.

India can further improve their tally as young Praveen Chithravel is in contention in the triple jump final, while both the men's and women's 4x400m relay teams have also made a strong statement by qualifying for the finals.

The impressive show by the compound archers made up for the flop show by the Olympic discipline recurve archers who drew a blank here.

Jadhav, who shot 14 perfect 10s before dropping a single point with his final arrow, edged out Great Britain's Ajay Scott 149-148 in a thrilling gold medal match.

The Indian held his nerve despite Scott opening with three Xs (10-point arrow closer to the centre), maintaining a flawless streak until the final arrow of the fifth end.

Jadhav had earlier reached the final after a nail-biting all-Indian semifinal, where he got the better of Kushal Dalal in a shoot-off after both archers were tied 148-148.

The deciding arrow saw Jadhav shoot a 10* (closer to centre), which edged Dalal's 10.

Dalal, however, endured heartbreak in the bronze medal match, going down 148-150 to Poland’s Przemysław Konecki, who shot a perfect round of 15 arrows to seal the third-place finish.

In the women's compound section, reigning Asian Games team gold medallist Parneet settled for silver after a narrow 146-147 defeat against South Korea's Moon Yeeun in a high-intensity final.

Parneet, who had topped the qualification round, started strong and shot flawlessly in the first two ends (three arrows each), opening up a two-point lead against her third seed rival.

However, she lost momentum in the third end, dropping two points as Moon stepped up with a perfect round of 30 to draw level.

There was no looking back for the Korean thereafter as Moon shot another flawless round of three 10s in the fourth end to gain a one-point lead.

That meant Parneet needed a perfect score in the final end to keep her hopes alive for the gold. But despite scoring an impressive 29, Moon matched her with another 29 to seal the title 147-146.

Earlier in the semifinals, Parneet edged fifth seed Kim Sooyeon of South Korea by just one point (145-144) in a tense contest.

Half-marathoners disappoint =================== India's strong presence in the half-marathon came to naught as none of the 10 runners in men's and women's sections could finish on the podium, even as a couple of personal best were recorded.

The Indian men's and women's 4X400m relay teams set season's best times to qualify for the finals in style.

Among the five Indian distance runners in the men's section, Mohit and Mohit Choudhary, recorded personal best times of 1:04:08 seconds and 1:06:51 seconds to finish sixth and 21st respectively in the gruelling event.

Three others, Arun Dhansing Rathod (26th), Shubham Baliyan (32nd) and Ankit Deswal (36th) clocked 1:07:19 sec, 1:08:32 sec and 1:09:07 sec respectively, raising a question mark on the selection of the distance runners.

Shinsaku Kudo smashed the WUG record in the event, finishing the race in 1:02:29 seconds to take the gold, while Ramazan Bastug (1:02:35) of Turkey took the silver and Japan's Ryuto Uehara (1:02:39 sec) bagged the bronze.

The women's half-marathon too didn't throw up any interesting results for the Indians with Jyoti clocking 1:21:22 seconds to finish 21st in a field of 27 runners.

China's Ma Xiuzhen finished a good nine minutes ahead to take the gold with a personal best time of 1:12:48 seconds.

Aarti Arjun Pawara (1:22.350) was 22nd, while Rinkee Pawara, Basanti Kumari and Svati Pal finished 24th, 25th and 26th respectively.

Relay teams show promise ================= The men's and women's relay teams showcased their class by qualifying for the finals.

The men's 4x400m relay team clocked a season's best time of 3:06.56 seconds to finish second behind Poland in Heat 2, while the women's 4x400m quartet also recorded a season's best of 3:35.12 seconds to make the title round and placed second in Heat 1.

India's triple jumper Poorva Sawant's campaign ended in the preliminary round with the 22-year-old from Mumbai finishing ninth in qualification with a leap of 12.82 metres.

Kiran Mhatre finished 16th and last in the 5000m event, timing 15:16.57 seconds, with the gold going to France's Arthur Gervais, who timed 15:02.00.

It was a disappointing show in women's triple jump qualification with Sandra Babu finishing 11th in a 12-player preliminary round with a lunge of 11.98m. PTI TAP AM AM UNG