Hangzhou, Oct 4: Ojas Deotale’s youthful energy blended seamlessly with Jyothi Surekha Vennam’s skills, securing India’s maiden gold medal in the compound mixed team event and contributing to their best-ever show in archery at the Asian Games, here on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old reigning world champion Deotale dropped a point but a flawless Jyothi made up for it, shooting all perfect scores from her eight arrows to down the second-seeded Korean pair So Chaewon and Joo Jaehoon 159-158.
With this, Indian archers are set to win at least four medals from the ongoing Games, which will better their previous best show at Incheon in 2014 when they bagged a men’s team compound gold, one silver and a bronze.
Playing three back-to-back knockout matches — quarterfinals, semifinals and final — in 140 minutes can be gruelling, but the Indian pair was ice-cool, especially the 27-year-old Jyothi, who excelled in some crucial moments to nail it.
That the pair dropped just four points in three matches tells a lot about the authority shown by Deotale and Jyothi.
“I’m not surprised by the result,” Deotale said after the win.
“We knew that we could do this. It was very close, but we maintained our form, we stayed calm in every situation,” he added.
Making her third Asian Games appearance, the multiple World Cup gold medallist Jyothi, who was chasing an elusive Asian Games yellow metal, first sealed it with a decisive 10 in the final end when India ousted a formidable Malaysia 158-155 to make the semifinals.
The Indian duo entered the final with a 159-154 win over Kazakhstan. They had just one ‘9’ and the rest were all ’10s’ in the semifinals against the Kazakh pair of Adel Zhexenbinova and Andrey Tyutyun.
In the gold medal clash between the top-two seeds, the No. 1 Indian pair opting to shoot first had all 10s in the first end, to race to a 40-39 lead.
By virtue of trailing, the Koreans had the advantage of starting off in the second end and managed to squeeze in all 10s, while the Indians remained steady to hold onto their lead (80-79).
In the penultimate end, Ojas faltered with a nine while responding to the Koreans’ two 10s, but Jyothi held her nerves and responded with a slam-bang 10 right in the inner-circle.
The two teams headed for the final end all squared up (119-119) but the Indian duo remained as cool as cucumbers, shooting all 10s from four arrows to seal it before the Koreans’ last two arrows.
Talking about his minor blip of 9, Deotale credited his Indian compound head coach Sergio Pagni, a two-time World Cup Final winner, to lift his morale.
“It was perfect, and I was quite enjoying it. Just like our coach said: ‘It is a piece of cake, you have to shoot 10 only’.
“(The sun) was shining, it was quite normal, but now it is a little bit windy. It was quite easy for us to manage it.”
Asked whether he was under any undue pressure of being the reigning world champion, he said: “The pressure is gone, I’m playing freely, enjoying stuff.”
Both Deotale and Jyothi will also vie for an individual gold medal each.
Deotale will face senior teammate Abhishek Verma, while top-seed Jyothi will take on So Chaewon in the individual finals on Saturday.
Indian men’s and women’s compound teams are also in medal hunt, having advanced into their respective quarters slated on Thursday.
India, however, suffered a heartbreak in the recurve mixed pair event, with Atanu Das and Ankita Bhakat squandering a 4-2 lead to fall short in the shoot-off against Indonesia to be eliminated in the quarterfinals.
The Indian duo lost to Riau Ega Agata Salsabilla and Diananda Choirunisa 4-5 (36-35, 35-36, 38-35, 34-40) (19-20).
Unlike the compound pair of Deotale-Jyothi, the chemistry was clearly missing from Das-Ankita who were inconsistent.
Needing a draw to seal the win in the fourth set, the Indians crumbled under pressure after their rivals shot all 10s to draw level.
In the shoot-off, the Indonesians scored two 10s, while Ankita matched them with a perfect score. Das had to score a 10 to seal the issue but the two-time Olympian managed a 9 in his turn to end their campaign.
India’s hope in recurve section rests now on men’s and women’s team events scheduled on Friday. (PTI)
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