IMAGE: Jyothi, who had a dream run in the Antalya Stage en route to securing her maiden individual World Cup gold medal, got a first-round bye and in a collision course with the Mexico World champion in the semi-final. Photograph: Kind courtesy World Archery/Twitter
Premier Indian compound archer Jyothi Surekha Vennam, who shot a world record-equalling qualifying score last month in Antalya, failed to replicate her success to slump to sixth place in the standings of the World Cup Stage 2, in Shanghai on Tuesday.
Fresh from her record-equalling 713 points in the World Cup Stage 1, Jyothi managed 693 points to finish outside top-five in the women’s compound qualifiers.
Koreans, who had pulled out of the Antalya meet, were back to dominate the proceedings as they grabbed the top seedings both in men’s and women’s sections.
Veteran Oh Yoohyun and 2017 World champion Song Yun Soo took the top-two spots, shooting 700 and 698 points respectively.
Jyothi, who had a dream run in the Antalya Stage en route to securing her maiden individual World Cup gold medal, got a first-round bye and in a collision course with the Mexico World champion in the semi-final.
Aditi Swami (12th, 689 points) and Avneet Kaur (16th, 687) were the next best Indians. In the team event, the women’s trio got third seeding behind Korean and Mexico.
Ojas Deotale, who had a spectacular World Cup debut in Antalya bagging a mixed team gold with Jyothi, slumped to 17th place with 696 points in the men’s section.
The next best Indian was Rishabh Yadav (25th, 694) and Prathamesh Jawkar (690, 33rd) as the Indian team finished outside top-four to be fifth behind Korea, Denmark, Tukey and Mexico.
By becoming the top Indian finishers in the qualifications, the gold-medal winning India duo will be seen together in the mixed team event again.
The duo got a sixth-place seeding which would mean the Indian mixed team would avoid top-seed Korea till the summit clash.
Ojas and Jyothi will open their campaign against their Bangladesh rivals in the pre-quarters in a draw of 32.
