Indian compound archers secure three historic golds, no Olympic quotas in recurve archery at World Championships in Berlin
Aug 05, 2023
Berlin [Germany], August 5 : The historic week for the Indian compound archers continued on Saturday as just hours after Aditi Gopichand Swami became the country's first-ever individual Gold medal winner at the ongoing World Archery Championships in Berlin, another Indian archer Ojas Pravin Deotale made history to become the first-ever male archer to get a gold at the world championships.
Ojas defeated Poland's Lukasz Przybylski in the gold medal match of men's individual compound archery by 150-149 to secure the historic title.
"Another gold for India at the Archery World Championships @kheloindia Athlete Ojas Pravin Deotale creates HISTORY as he wins after defeating Poland's Lukasz Przybylski with a perfect score of 150-149 With this, he also became 1st Indian male to win Individual in Men's Compound," tweeted Sports Authority of India (SAI) Media.
The World Archery, the governing body of sport across the world also acknowledged Ojas' historic win, tweeting, "PERFECT WIN for Ojas Pravin Deotale. WORLD CHAMPION with a 150 complete score. #WorldArchery #archery."
With this, India has secured its highest medal tally in a single World Championships meet with a total of four, including three golds and a bronze won by Jyothi Surekha Vennam in women's individual compound archery. India's campaign at the Berlin meet concludes on Saturday.
Earlier, Aditi Gopichand made history by giving India its first-ever individual gold medal in the history of the World Archery Championships at the ongoing edition of the tournament in Berlin.
Aditi, who is a Khelo India athlete, earned the title of 'World Champion' in the women's individual compound archery by defeating Mexico's Andrea Beccera in the final by 149-147 in a thrilling title clash.
The Sports Authority of India (SAI) acknowledged Aditi's accomplishment through their Twitter handle.
"#KheloIndia Athlete Aditi Gopichand Swami crowned World Champion at the #ArcheryWorldChampionships The 17-year-old created history by defeating 's Andrea Beccera 149-147 in the Women's Individual Compound final and winning the glorious gold for India's Heartiest congratulations!," tweeted SAI Media.
Notably, the Indian women's compound team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Gopichand Swami bagged the gold medal at the championships in Berlin on Friday.
It was India’s first-ever gold at the archery world championships in any category.
In the gold medal final, the Indian three defeated the Mexican combination of Dafne Quintero, Ana Sofa Hernandez Jeon, and Andrea Becerra 235-229.
The Indian three, placed second in the qualification round, defeated defending champions Colombia 220-216 in the semi-finals to go to the title match.
After obtaining a bye in the first round, the Indian women's compound team defeated Chinese Taipei and Turkey in the quarter-finals and pre-quarterfinals, respectively.
India has now won a total of 14 medals at the World Archery Championships, including three golds, nine silvers and two bronze medals.
In the compound mixed team event, Indian archers failed to progress beyond the quarterfinals. None of the country's recurve archers made it to medal rounds and failed to clinch any quotas for Paris Olympics 2024. Only recurve archery is held at the Olympics. It is the first qualifying event for Paris 2024 Olympics for archers.
