World Archery Championships 2021 Day 5: Jyothi Surekha Vennam bags third silver

Abhishek Verma suffered a narrow defeat in the quarterfinals.

Ace Indian compound archer Jyothi Surekha Vennam picked up her third silver medal in two days at the ongoing World Archery Championships 2021. Vennam performed brilliantly to reach the gold medal match in the women's individual event. However, yet again she succumbed to a Colombian, Sara Lopez.

Facing Lopez for the third time in this tournament, Vennam lost to the World No. 3 archer yet again on Sunday 146-144. Earlier in the day, Vennam had delivered a perfect score in her quarterfinal against world youth champion Amanda Mlinaric of Croatia. Although her semi-final against Andrea Becerra of Mexico wasn’t perfect, she secured a comfortable win, 148-146, to reach the summit clash.

It has been a bittersweet campaign for Jyothi Surekha Vennam at the World Archery Championships 2021. She had already secured two silver medals prior to Sunday's final. Firstly, a women's compound team silver arrived alongside Priya Gurjar and Muskan Kirar. The defeat in the final had come against a Colombian side spearheaded by Lopez. Another silver medal in the mixed compound team category followed on the same day. Vennam and Abhishek Verma lost out to Colombian duo Sara Lopez and Daniel Munoz. Thus, Vennam lost three finals in the same tournament to the same opposition.

However, she can take solace from the fact that she improved on her individual bronze medal-winning performance from the 2019 edition. As for Sara Lopez, she became the first archer to win all three gold medals against the same opponent. In doing so, the Colombian archer adds a first-ever individual World Archery Championships gold in her storied career.

Narrow defeat for Abhishek Verma

In the men's individual compound category, India's Abhishek Verma fell just short in his quarterfinal match-up. Up against a tough challenge from Dutchman Mike Schloesser, Verma fought well but ultimately went down 147-148.

Schloesser went on to reach the final, losing 143-146 to Nico Wiener of Austria. As for Abhishek Verma, he will now turn his attentions towards the Archery World Cup final, which begins on September 29 at the same venue.

The final day of the World Archery Championships 2021 will witness the recurve individual match-ups. Ankita Bhakat is the sole Indian representative still alive in the competition. She will take on American Casey Kaufhold in the quarterfinals.

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