Women compound archers to fight for gold

Madrid: India were assured of at least one medal at Stage 4 of the Archery World Cup after the compound women’s team stormed into the final, even as the men’s team bowed out in the quarterfinals here on Wednesday.

The top-seeded women’s trio of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and the 16-year-old debutant Prithika produced a dominant show, beating Indonesia 230-226 in the semifinals.

Earlier, they eased past El Salvador 235-226 in the quarterfinals. They will face the 10th seeds Chinese Taipei for the gold medal on Saturday.

However, the men’s compound team -- Rishabh Yadav, Prathamesh Fuge and Aman Saini -- fell short by a single point, losing 233-234 to Mexico in a hard-fought quarterfinal.

The Indians, who had topped qualification, started strongly but slipped behind in the second end and could not recover.