Rajat Chouhan and Manjudha Soy stormed into the final of compound mixed section to assure India of at least a silver medal as top archers came a cropper at the World Cup Stage II being held at Antalya, Turkey.
According to information received here, the duo who qualified third behind Korea, defeated Great Britain 151-149, Russia 156-154 and Canada 154-147 en route to the final.
Chouhan and Manjudha will look to win a first-ever gold medal for India in the compound section when they face Italians Sergio Pagni and Marcella Tonioli in the mixed team final on Saturday.
The Indian pair showed amazing co-ordination right from the start as the beat the Brions the door in the first round with 10 perfect 10s.
In the quarters, Chouhan and Manjudha were a picture of consistency as they overcame a stiff Russian challenge by a narrow two-point margin.
Canadians Dietmar Trillius and Ashley Wallace had a dream run as they scored an upset win over Mexico in the quarters but they found the Indians too tough as Chouhan and Manjudha stormed into the final in style.
The compound men’s team had a quarter-final exit, losing to the USA 230-237 while the women’s trio lost 215-219 to their opponents from Venezuela in the first round.
Earlier, the fancied recurve archers disappointed with Laishram Bombayla Devi, most impressive among the lot, with a quarter-final exit in the women’s individual.
Bombayla Devi went down to Hyun Jung Joo of Korea 2-6.
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Aggarwal loses, Indian campaign ends
New Delhi, June 14: India’s campaign ended at the China Open Super Series after paddler Neha Aggarwal lost to Viktoria Pavlovich 0-4 in the women’s singles event in Changchun on Friday.
Aggarwal (373) proved no match for the world number 13 from Belarus and surrendered meekly 7-11, 7-11, 1-11, 6-11 in the first round encounter of the main draw.
She was the only Indian entrant into the top-32 women’s singles competition.
Earlier in the day, Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sanil Shetty were beaten by Ning Gao and Hu Li of Singapore 5-11, 11-6, 3-11, 10-12 in their opening doubles match.
The other pair of Harmeet Desai and Soumyajit Ghosh failed to qualify.
No Indian women pairs could enter the main draw of the doubles event.
In the Under-21 boys’ category matches, Desai (58) fought hard against Quentin Robinot (22) of France before going down 8-11, 9-11, 11-9, 9-11, while Ghosh (28) was overwhelmed by China’s Zhendong Fan (3) 2-11, 6-11, 10-12. — PTI