Seasoned Jyothi Surekha Vennam defeated her South Korean rivals to top the qualification, while world champion Aditi Swami secured the fourth spot to also make the cut and push India to take the top spot in the women’s composite archery at the Asian Games here on Sunday.
As the action in the discipline got underway in the continental showpiece, the script unfolded as expected with the Indians dominating the compound section.
The country also had an inspiring show in the recurve section of the Olympic discipline, where veteran Atanu Das finished fourth, while promising youngster Dhiraj Bomadevara was the next best Indian at sixth to make it in the men’s section.
As a result, the Indian men’s recurve team qualified as the third seed with 2022 points. Recurve heavyweights South Korea topped the qualifiers with 2048 points, while Chinese Taipei (2030) took second place in the rankings.
The women’s recurve and men’s compound qualifiers are scheduled for the second half of the day.
Chasing her first-ever individual medal at the Asian Games, 27-year-old Jyothi, the most talented Indian compound archer, turned heads during the morning session at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre.
Jyothi, who has eight medals at the World Championships, dropped just five points for a total of 355 halfway through the 36 darts. She shot 16 perfect 10s and 15 more Xs (closer to the middle).
Jyothi slipped slightly in the back of 36 arrows, leaving him 349 points behind South Korean So Chaewon by one point. But it didn’t matter much as the Indian defeated the South Koreans on aggregate to take first place.
Jyothi, Aditi and Parneet Kaur (ranked 12th) had a total team score of 2087, which was tied with South Korea, but the Indians occupied the top spot with more ’10+X’ scores than their rivals.
Thanks to their top seeding, the Indian women’s team has been given a bye to the quarter-finals where they will face the winners of the Hong Kong-Bangladesh match.
In the men’s recurve section, comeback man and two-time Olympian Atanu Das finished as the top-ranked Indian at fourth place overall (678).
Dhiraj, a rising youngster from the Army, was not far behind at seventh spot with a score of 675.
The duo made the cut for the elimination round. Tushar Shelke was the next best Indian at 15th to qualify for the team event, where they secured the third seed in 2022, just eight points behind Chinese Taipei.
South Korea occupied the first place (2048).