World Archery Championships 2021 Day 4: India win two silver medals

The women's and mixed compound teams opened the account of the country in the competition.

The Indian women's and mixed compound teams had to be satisfied with silver medals after they failed to win their respective finals at the World Archery Championships 2021. Colombia were the party-spoilers on both occasions on Friday.

The day started with the women's team final in Yankton, USA. The Colombian trio Sara Lopez, Nora Valdez and Alejandra Usquiano comfortably beat India 229-224 to capture the gold. The Indian representatives, Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Priya Gurjar and Muskan Kirar simply had no answers against their Latin American challengers.

The two teams opened with ends of 58 points apiece. However, the Colombian trio, gradually began to manage the ever-increasing windy conditions in the arena, as they slowly started to build an advantage. They lost fewer arrows to gusts and used speedy shooting to gain an upper hand.

Returning to the top spot of the podium at the World Archery Championships has been a focus for the Colombian women's compound team. They had first won the title in 2013 and then added another in the year 2017. As for India, the likes of Priya and Muskan are new names and will fare better in the near future.

A day of double disappointment

Shortly afterwards, Jyothi Surekha Vennam returned to the field, partnering Abhishek Verma for the mixed compound team final at the World Archery Championships 2021. Once again, they would face a Colombian onslaught.

Sara Lopez and Daniel Munoz rode seven straight 10s to race into a six-point advantage. No strong finish from the Indian duo could close the gap in the 16-arrow match-up. With Munoz drilling his last 10, he made it six out of his eight arrows to hit the bullseye. Eventually, Colombia won the contest 154-150.

India has now reached the podium of the World Archery Championships 10 times. With these defeats, the nation still holds the record for most podium finishes without ever winning a gold medal in the competition's history.

Elsewhere, South Korea had a clean sweep of all the titles in the recurve team events at the World Archery Championships 2021. Their women's, men's and mixed recurve teams won back-to-back gold medals to once again underline their absolute dominance in recurve archery.

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