By Our Special Correspondent
India wraps up campaign with two gold medals
Indian’s Tarundeep Rai and Ridhi clinched the first ever receive mixed team gold medal at the 2022 Archery World Cup Stage I after a tense final against Great Britain here on Sunday.
The mixed India duo rallied to beat the Great Britain duo of Bryony Pitman and Alex Wise in a shoot –off 18-17. Pairing up for the first time ever, two time Olympain Rai and the young Ridhi trailed twice 0-2 and 2-4 but fought back to close out the tie 5-4 (35-37, 36-33, 39-40, 38-37) (18-17)en route to their maiden gold medal.
The 17 years old Ridhi and 38 years old Olympian Tarundeep Rai made slow start to the match after going down in the first set. Down 2-0 though Ridhi and Rai bounced back by a 36-33 scoreline in the second set to level up the affair.
The third set saw the Indians shoot well with 39 but there was little they could do as the English archers raked up a perfect 40. Needing yet another comeback to stay in the match, Rai and Ridhi delivered with a 38-37 win in the fourth set to tie up the match at 4-4 and force the shoot off.
Winning the shoot off 18-17. It was India's second medal at the meet in Turkey. Earlier, the compound men's team, comprising Abhishek Verma, Aman Saini and Rajat Chauhan clinched gold after beating France in the final on Saturday. Indian’s archery evergreen man Rai who won the Asian Games silver in Guangzhou 2010, is also getting ready for this year’s Asian Games Winning World cup title is a kind of milestone and this experience will really help us to win a medal in the Asian games he started.
The compound archers also struggled, with only Rajat Chauhan and Priya Gurjar making the top eight in the men's and women's individual events, respectively. Asian Games gold medallist Abhishek Verma was ousted in the round of 32. The reserve teams (men and women) and women's compound team could also not reach the medal rounds.
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