Archery teams enter compound finals
JAKARTA: India were assured of at least two more silver medals from the 18th Asian Games after its men and women progressed to the final of the compound archery team events here today.
The Indian men are the defending champions and they lived up to their reputation by getting the better of Chinese Taipei 230-227 in the semi-finals.
The trio of Abhishek Verma, Aman Saini and Rajat Chauhan were slow to get off the blocks before getting their act together to prevail 57-57, 56-57, 55-58, 59-58 in the four-set encounter.
The Indian men, who had earlier defeated Qatar (227-213) and Philippines (227-226) on way to the semi-finals, will play South Korea in a repeat of the 2014 Incheon Asiad title clash.
Earlier in the day, Indian women bettered their last edi- tion’s performance by entering the summit clash of the compound team. The Indian women, who had returned with a bronze medal from Incheon four years ago, too, beat Chinese Taipei 225222 in the semi-finals to progress to the gold medal match.
The Indian women’s team, comprising Surekha Jyothi Vennam, Muskan Kirar and Madhumita Kumar, witnessed a slow start in the final as they lost the first two sets 55-58, 55-57 before finding their mojo back to pocket the next two 57-55, 58-52 and seal the tie in their favour.
The Indian women had earlier defeated hosts Indonsia 229-224 in the quarter-finals. The two medals from the compound teams have come as a welcome relief for the Indian archery contingent after the recurve archers drew a blank from the Games.
BOXER SARJUBALA IN QF
Former world silver-medallist boxer Sarjubala Devi advanced to the quarterfinals but Manoj Kumar and Shiva Thapa were ousted after pre-quarterfinal losses on Sunday.
Sarjubala, competing in the flyweight 51kg category, defeated Tajikistan’s Madina Ghaforova 5-0. Manoj was defeated by Kyrgyzstan’s Abdurakhman Abdurakhamanov in the welterweight 69kg category, while Shiva spent less than a minute in the ring before referee stopped the contest in favour of China’s Jun Shan in the lightweight 60kg category.