In the final, the group defeated Mexican competitors Andrea Becerra, Dafne Quintero, and Ana Sofa Hernandez Jeon 235-229.
The compound archers provided the nation a great reason to cheer on Friday, whereas India’s recurve archers haven’t had much to smile about throughout this World Championship.
At the 2023 Berlin World Archery Championships, the Indian women’s compound team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami, and Parneet Kaur defeated Mexico 235-229 to win the gold medal. The three did this to become the first Indian women’s compound team to hold the title of world champions and to ensure that India opened its medal account in dramatic fashion at an otherwise uninspiring World Championships, despite competing in a non-Olympic compound discipline.
Perhaps appropriately, it was Jyothi who fired the final arrow to secure the elusive gold for herself and the nation—she having previously won four silver and two bronze medals at the World Championships.
“This is very special for us because it’s the first time India has won the gold medal and become world champion,” said Jyothi, 27, who won three silver medals (team, individual, and team mixed) at the 2021 edition. “We are optimistic that we will win more medals for the country in the future.”
Jyothi, the veteran, was joined by two youthful stars, Aditi, 17, and Parneet, 18. Aditi has already made significant progress in her promising career. She won the Under-18 compound world championships in Limerick last month after breaking the Under-18 compound women’s qualification record the month before. Meanwhile, Parneet earned an individual bronze medal at the Asia Cup Leg 2 in Tashkent in April-May of this year. The two youngsters rose to the task on a far larger platform and under considerably greater strain.
“We are overjoyed to have won gold,” Parneet stated. “Our entire focus was on winning and ensuring that we followed the process… (and) thus we could win gold.” There was a lot of shouting and cheering, but we were unaffected; we just focused on how to shoot our best.”
Following a first-round bye, the second-seeded Indian team began the run with a 230-228 win over Turkey before edging Chinese Taipei 228-226 in the quarter-finals. The trio was much more clinical in its 220-216 semi-final win over Colombia, which was ranked third, and carried that momentum into the final against the top seeds.
India took the lead against Mexico right away, shooting an incredible 59 — including two Xs (closer to the centre) from the five 10s — out of a possible 60 to Mexico’s 57. Jyothi, Aditi, and Parneet continued to hit more than miss, shooting just one 9 in the second and third rounds to post two more 59s and take a comfortable 177-172 lead into the final round.
Jyothi’s arrow landed at 9 for a final round score of 58, despite needing only 5 from the final stroke for gold. The three history-makers exchanged fist bumps with a broad grin on their faces.
They’re not finished yet. They have all advanced to the quarter-finals of the individual women’s compound event and will compete for additional glory on Saturday. While Jyothi or Parneet will advance from an all-India last-eight match, Aditi will compete against Dutchwoman Sanne de Laat for a spot in the semi-finals.
The performance of the compound archers has been in stark contrast to that of the recurve archers competing for berths in the 2024 Paris Olympics. None of the Indian recurve archers qualified for Paris or came close to earning a medal at this event.
