Archery World Championships: Surekha, Verma reach third round

Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Abhishek Verma reached the third round of the Archery World Championships after finishing sixth and seventh in the compound men and women qualification rounds respectively.

Surekha shot 684 while Verma scored 695 in the qualification and then got byes in the first two elimination rounds.

Muskan Kirar also earned a first round bye in women's compound event after finishing 29th in the qualification.

The third Indian in the women's compound event, Priya Gurjar will face Isabelle Carpenter of Great Britain in the first round after finishing 51st in the qualification.

Verma's other colleagues, Sangampreet Singh and Rishab Yadav will feature in the first round of the eliminations after finishing 26th and 49th respectively.

In men's recurve section, Salunkhe Parth Sushant, Aditya Choudhary and Atul Verma will compete in the first round of the eliminations after finishing 45th, 53rd and 56th respectively.

Ankita Bhakat, Ridhi and Bari Komalika made it to the second round of women's recurve after finishing 20th, 26th and 29th respectively. All the three got first round byes.

In men's recurve team event, Indian trio of Salunkhe Parth Sushant, Aditya Choudhary and Atul Verma will face Canada in the first round of eliminations after finishing 13th in the qualification.

The recurve women's team of Ankita Bhakat, Ridhi and Bari Komalika did better then their male counterparts by finishing seventh to get the first-round bye. The Indian trio will face Japan in the second round.

In the men's compound team, the Indian trio of Verma, Sangampreet and Rishab earned first round byes after finishing fifth in the qualification.

The compound women's team of Surekha, Muskan and Priya finished fifth in the qualification to face Denmark in the first round. A win against Denmark will take them to quarterfinals.

India beat Ukraine 6-0 in recurve mixed team first round to face top seed Korea in second round.

The compound mixed team of Verma and Surekha earned a first round bye after finishing fifth in qualifications. They face RAF in the second round.

India has sent a young team of 12 archers in the championships picked on the basis of selection trials in August.

Tokyo Olympians Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav, Tarundeep Rai and Deepika Kumari did not make it to the squad as they had failed to finish in the top three during the trials.

World No. 1 recurve archer Deepika finished fourth in the trials, behind teenagers Komalika Bari and Ridhi Phor and world No. 32 Ankita Bhakat. Only the best three from each category were chosen.