India clinch two gold medals in archery
Hangzhou: The Indian archers continued to rock and roll, winning two gold medals in team events at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Thursday. Proceedings had begun well, thanks first to the solid show put up by seasoned star Jyothi Surekha Vennam,
Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur in the women’s compound archery final.
It was a razor sharp contest right down to the wire where Jyothi lent a helping hand with her experience. To beat Chinese Taipi 230-229 had hearts beating faster. The players for the losing team were Yi-Hsuan Chen, I-Jou Huang and Lu-Yun Wand. Archery has been making waves in Hangzhou where two names of Jyothi Surekha and Ojas have become so popular. Jyothi Surekha began
her career in swimming initially. Once she realized her strength was in archery, she has grown in strength. In addition to sport, she also has a government job as deputy collector with the Andhra Pradesh government.
On a windy day when controlling play was hard, it was Jyothi’s experience which mattered. “Today was not easy at all. There were gusts of wind and to tame the conditions was challenging. In our team and all other events, I am more than happy to play the role of a senior. When someone else is doing badly, I am there to score solid points,” said Jyothi Surekha. “This is the first gold medal in compound team event in the Asian Games. There has been good coordination and we support each other well. One may think there are youngsters in the team but in terms of performance these relatively new players have got plenty of exposure,” said Jyothi.
“It went down to the last arrow in our event in women’s section. All we can do is play to potential was my advice to the others,” added Jyothi.
In the evening, the men’s team came up with sensational stuff to defeat the Koreans 235-230. Rising star Ojas Pravin Deotale, Abhishek Verma, and Prathamesh Jawkar were more than a handful and defeated South Korean top seeds Jaehoon Joo, Jaewon Yang and Kim Jongho 235-230 in the gold medal match.
Before the women’s final, Jyothi Suresh had already given her verdict. “I am confident the men will do well, their form and consistency has been very good,” she had said.
This is the third gold medal for Indian in archery in Hangzhou. Like the women’s team, finding the right balance has been important for the men as well where the experience of Abhishek was very handy.
