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Indian teams into seven finals at world youth championships

13 August 2021

Wroclaw, Poland

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India has put under-18 and under-21 recurve and compound teams into eight of the 12 team final fours – and seven gold medal matches – at the 2021 World Archery Youth Championships in Wroclaw, Poland.

The 24-athlete delegation has credited the results to a special day in India.

“Our match will be on 15 August, which is our independence day. Our goal is to make our flag rise high on that day,” said Dhiraj Bommadevara, one of the recurve men’s under-21 archers that will shoot for the world title on Sunday afternoon.

Bommadevara, Aditya Choudhary and Parth Sushant Salunkhe beat the USA, 5-3, in a back-and-forth match to secure their spot in the final. The semi was decided in the very last set, with India’s last arrow.

Tied at three set points apiece, India scored 57 with its last six arrows to the USA’s 56, pipping them to the post and the ticket into the final.

“We had a very tough and close match. We both shot very well but it came down to one point on our favour. It feels really good because in 2017 we won a silver medal and now we want to improve it to gold,” added Bommadevara.

The trio will now face Yun Sanchez, Manuel Santos del Valle and Jose Solera of Spain in the final. The Spanish trio beat Italy, 6-2, in the semis.

“We are very excited, very happy for getting the job done, and now looking forward to one last match,” said Solera.

Ranked top after qualifying, Komalika Bari and Parth Sushant Salunkhe will shoot for gold in the under-21 recurve mixed team final.

The pair outclassed Germany in the semis and, like the Indian men, will face Spain in the final.

Yun Sanchez and Elia Canales beat Russia in a semifinal tiebreak, 19 points to 18.

Bari, as well as shooting for mixed team and individual gold medals on Sunday afternoon, will also lead the Indian recurve women’s team in the bronze medal match against Ukraine, having fallen to Japan in the final four, 6-2.

The next generation of archers from the host of this year’s Olympic Games has two finals – against sixth-seed Russia in the under-21 recurve women’s team event and against India in the under-18 recurve mixed team competition.

“Today we tried to enjoy the game rather than focusing on the results and it worked well. We will do the same in the final, we want to make the best out of it,” said Mao Watanabe.

Japan beats India in the under-21 recurve women's team semifinal.

The only area in which India’s team success faltered was its under-21 compounds.

It was, instead, a range of competitions dominated by a largely underperforming Mexican squad in Wroclaw.

Mexico will shoot in all three gold medal matches in the age group, with the men’s team facing Turkey, the women meeting Russia and the Mexican mixed pair taking on Estonia.

“I’m very happy with the result. Our arrows were very accurate, and we felt good throughout matches. I think we both worked hard for this,” said Dafne Quintero, who will shoot in both mixed and women’s team finals.

Sebastian Garcia, who won the under-18 world title in 2019, will also shoot for individual bronze.

With the finals line-up set, India looks set to lead the medal table in Wroclaw – with 10 podium finishes guaranteed and as many as 14 possible.

The finals will be shown live in India via Sony. The rest of the world can watch on World Archery’s YouTube channel.