Sports Shorts: India bag bronze in Archery World Cup

A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday

India ended their Archery World Cup campaign with a bronze medal in the compound mixed pair event at stage one in Shanghai on Saturday.

In hunt for three bronze medals, India could only succeed in the mixed pair event when Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam combined to prevail over the Turkish team of Yesim Bostan and Demir Elmaagacli 154-148.

Bostan and Elmaagacli were no match to the Indian pair who led 39-35 in the first end with three perfect 10s including one X.

Verma and Jyothi extended the lead by 78-73 after the second end and continued their consistent show in the final end with another 39 to win by six points.

India however lost both their matches in the men's and women's compound team events.

India thus ended their campaign with just one medal as none of the recurve archers are in medal fray.

Dutch trio of Sanne de Laat, Jody Vermeulen and Martine Couwenberg beat India's Jyothi, Madhumita Kumari and Muskan Kirar 223-221 to take bronze in the compound team.

A point down after the first six arrows, the Dutch team found itself with a two-point lead after the third end, 167-165, which it held through the last six arrows to win the match.

Frenchmen Seb Peineau, PJ Deloche and Jean Philippe Boulch won the compound men's bronze medal over India with a 234-232 scoreline.

Junior hockey teams progress to finals of Youth Olympics Qualifier

The junior Indian men's and women's hockey teams continued their fine run at the Youth Olympic Games Qualifiers as they advanced to the finals of their respective categories in Bangkok on Saturday.

The junior men's team defeated Bangladesh 9-2 in their semifinal encounter while their women counterparts beat Malaysia 4-2 in their last-four stage match.

The men's semi-final saw India dominate the first two periods as Shivam Anand scored a hat-trick (5th, 8th and 15th minutes) to give India a 3-0 lead going into the final period.

Six goals from the Indian team in the final period, including another one from Shivam (24th), were enough for them to see off the challenge from Bangladesh, who managed to score twice in the match through Sobuj Shohanur (23rd and 29th).

India's other goal-scorers in the match were Rahul Kumar Rajbhar (22nd and 23rd), Maninder Singh (22nd), skipper Vivek Sagar Prasad (24th) and Mohammad Alishan (26th).

The men's side will face the winner of the second semi-final between Malaysia and South Korea in the final match of the competition on Sunday.

The women's semi-final was a close encounter. Chetna gave India the lead in the sixth minute but Malaysia's Nor Isahhidun scored the equaliser in the ninth minute.

However, India pulled up their socks in the second period and scored two goals through Ishika Chaudhary (14th) and Salima Tete (20th) to regain control of the match.

India scored another goal through Sangita Kumari in the 23rd minute to take a 4-1 lead. Malaysia could only score once in the final seven minutes, the goal coming from Siti Hussain's stick in the 27th minute.

The Indian women's team will now face a strong China in the final match of the competition on Sunday.

The five-day tournament is a qualifying event for Youth Olympic Games 2018 to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in October, which will be played at Hockey 5's format.