World Archery Championship / Indian team creates 'Golden' history in World Championship, ends 42-year drought

World Archery Championship: India's archery team created history in the ongoing World Archery Championship in Berlin, the capital of Germany. The Indian women's compound archery team of Jyoti Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami and Preneet Kaur won the gold medal by defeating Mexico and ending a 42-year drought for India. With this victory, India opened its medal account in this World Cup. This is the first time India has won a gold medal in the Archery World Championships since its inception in 1981 at Punta Ala (Italy). India last won a medal in the recurve category at the 2019 Archery World Championships held in the Netherlands. The men's team of Tarundeep Rai, Atanu Das and Praveen Jadhav won the silver medal.

India's one-sided victory over top team Mexico

The Indian women's team defeated top seed Mexico 235-229 in a one-sided final to win the country's first gold medal at the World Archery Championships. India had earlier defeated Colombia in the semi-finals and Chinese Taipei in the quarter-finals. Earlier, India had lost in the finals four times in the recurve section and five times in the non-Olympic compound section of the World Archery Championships. After this historic victory, team member Jyoti said, we had won many silver medals and yesterday we had thought that now we will win gold. This is a start, we will win more medals.

Let us tell you that 17-year-old Aditi, who recently became the Under-18 World Champion, is the youngest member of this team. After this victory, he said that it is a special moment to win the first medal for the country and to see the Indian flag fluttering. At a time when the graph of Indian recurve archers is on the decline, this win in the non-Olympic compound event will boost the team's morale. Significantly, in this tournament, all the recurve archers of India have been out of the medal race. India's challenge in the recurve event is over with the pre-quarterfinal exits of Dheeraj Bommadevra and Simranjit Kaur on Thursday.

Jyoti's 7th medal in World Championship

In the final against Mexico, all three Indian players shot 59-59 in 60 in the first three rounds. With this India took a lead of 177-172. India won the match in the fourth round with a score of 58. This is Jyoti's overall seventh medal in the World Championship. He has won four silver and two bronze medals before this gold. Jyoti, Aditi and Preneet are in contention for medals after reaching the quarterfinals of the individual event. While Preneet will face Jyoti's challenge in the last-eight stage, Aditi will face Netherlands' Sanne De Laat.