Archery World Cup: Compound mixed pair fights for bronze; flop show by recurve team

GWANGJU (South Korea): India's mixed team of compound archers will be fighting for a bronze medal after its semifinal defeat while the recurve team put up yet another dismal show at the World Cup (Stage Two) here on Friday.

The mixed pair of Abhishek Verma and Avneet Kaur ousted Denmark (157-155), fancied Mexico (156-153) before going down to 10th seed Estonia (156158) in a close semi-final to end up in the bronze medal playoff round.

The sixth seeded Indian mixed team will take on fourthseeded Turkey in its bid to win country's third bronze medal from the meet.

India have won a bronze each in the women's compound and recurve team events with at least another silver being assured with the compound men's team playing the final on Saturday.

It was the same old story for the recurve archers as they once again crumbled against their 'nemesis' Koreans to cap yet another forgettable outing -- a solitary bronze in the women's team event.

In absence of Olympians Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari, who have been axed, India fielded a new-look mixed team of Tarundeep Rai and Ridhi Phor.

The seventh seed Indian duo, who got a bye into the prequarters, defeated 10th seed Japan 5-3 (33-38, 36-36, 38-32, 38-36), but in the next round they lost to Germany 1-5 (3737, 32-35, 36-37).

Making a World Cup comeback after about five years, former individual gold medalist Jayanta Talukdar and his experienced teammate Rai were made to bite the dust against same Korean opponent Kim Woojin.