Archers shine

The Indian recurve mixed pair archery duo of Atanu Das and Ankita Bhakat showed tenacity to defeat Malayasia in a three-setter and sail into quarterfinals at the Asian Games on Monday.

Indian archers stormed into last-eight in three team events — recurve mixed, compound mixed, compound men’s team — when the elimination round got underway.

As of now, India are in medal contention in four events with the top-seeded women’s team compound archers getting a bye into the quarters.

Fifth seeded Indian duo of Das and Ankita rallied to beat Malaysian team of Syaqiera Binti Mashayikh, Muhamad Zarif Syahir Bin Zolkepeli 6-2 (39-38, 37-36, 39-33).

Should they overcome the Indonesian challenge, the Indians may run into the top-seeded Koreans in potential semifinal clash in Olympic-qualifying event.

In the compound mixed team, top-seeded Indian duo of Ojas Deotale and Jyothi Surekha Vennam dropped just one point from 16 arrows to eliminate UAE’s Amna Alawadhi and Mohammed Binamro 159-151.

The duo will take on formidable Malaysia (No 8 seed) in the quarters and thereafter they have an easy draw till the final.

In the compound men’s team event, second-seeded Indians trio of Ojas, Abhishek Verma and Prathamesh Jawkar thrashed 15th seed Singapore (Woon Teng NG, Lee Chung Hee Alan, Jun Hui Goh) 235-219.

The compound men’s team is now pitted against lower-ranked Bhutan in the quarters and will have a potential semifinal clash against third seeded Chinese Taipei.

The top-seeded Indian women’s compound team of Jyothi, Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur, who got a bye into the quarters, will open its campaign against ninth-seeded Hong Kong who ousted Bangladesh 225-218. (PTI)