Dhiraj, Ankita sail into semis of Archery World Cup

ANTALYA (TURKEY), Jun 21: Indian archers Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat moved closer to a medal, entering the individual semifinals while the mixed team remained in the hunt for a bronze in the World Cup Stage 3 here on Friday.

Dhiraj overcame Bangladesh’s Mohammed Sagor Islam 6-0, Indonesia’s Riau Salsabilla 7-1, Colombia’s Santiago Arango 6-4, Germany’s Jonathon Vetter 7-3.

He will face Korea’s Olympic and World gold medallist Kim Woojin in the last-four match.

His teammates Pravin Jadhav and Tarundeep Rai exited in the first round.

Ankita defeated Iran’s Mobina Fallah 6-4, Ukraine’s Veronika Marchenko 7-1, China’s Li Jiaman 6-5 (9-8) and Korea’s Jeon Hunyoung 6-4.

Ankita will be up against China’s top-ranked Yang Xiaolei in the semis.

There was, however, disappointment for Deepika Kumari who lost to Yang 5-6 (8-10) in the shoot off to make a third round exit.

Bhajan Kaur exited in the second round.

The Indian recurve mixed team of Bhajan and Dhiraj started off beating Great Britain 5-1 and Brazil 5-1.

But they lost to South Korea 3-5 in the semifinals. India will take on Mexico in the bronze medal match on Sunday.

In the compound mixed team event, the No. 1 Indian duo of Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Priyansh beat Estonia 158-156 but lost to Italy 156-154 in the quarters. (PTI)