Dhaka: The 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 South Korea, who got the better of Uzbekistan 6-2.
The trio of Deepshikha, Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Prathika Pradeep defeated hosts Bangladesh 234-227 to enter the final.