The Indian men’s recurve team sealed a second successive final spot at the ongoing World Cup Archery series in Turkey. According to information received here, the top seeds first brushed aside Belarus 224-211 in the pre-quarterfinal, prevailed over Russia (224-219) in the quarters before edging past Japan (216-213) in the semis.
The trio — Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar — will now take on the United States in the title round on Thursday.
In the individuals’ section of this Stage II tournament in Antalya, veteran Dola Banerjee advanced into the semifinal, where she will take on Victoriya Koval of Ukraine on Friday.
Besides Dola, only Talukdar and reigning cadet world champion Deepika Kumari managed to reach the quarterfinals in the individual section before bowing out. Talukdar lost to Shungo Tabata of Japan, while Russian Inna Stepanova ousted Deepika.
The results in this section were quite disappointing for India as most of the archers, both among men and women, were eliminated early from the competition. L. Bombayla Devi and Rahul Banerjee did inspire hopes, but could not move past the quarterfinal stage.