Asian Games 2023: The pair of Jyoti Surekha Vennam and Ojas Deotale won gold for the country with their brilliant performance in archery on Wednesday. This was India’s 16th gold medal in the 2023 Asian Games. Jyoti and Ojas lost only one point against the South Korean pair in the final of the compound mixed team event of archery on Wednesday and won the second gold medal in the archery event of the Asian Games.
In the final of the compound mixed team event of archery, the Indian pair defeated the pair of Jo Cheewon and Joo Jihoon 159-158 in a very exciting and close match. Earlier in the semi-finals, the Indian pair scored 10 points every time except nine points against the Kazakhstan pair of Adel Zheshenbinova and Andrey Tyutyun and entered the title match by winning 159-154.
Indian pair created history in the final, 15 out of 16 arrows hit the target accurately
The special thing was that the Indian pair hit 15 out of 16 threes accurately in the final. Jyoti Surekha performed brilliantly for India. He hit the target accurately in all his eight attempts and scored full 80 marks. However, Tejas was able to score only 9 points in one attempt. However, Tejas scored full marks in the remaining seven attempts. He scored 79 points in his eight attempts.
Jyoti and Devtale defeated the Malaysian pair 158-155 in the quarterfinals and secured a place in the semi-finals. The fourth seeded pair of Kazakhstan defeated Thailand 154-152 in the quarterfinals.
In the quarterfinals, the Indian pair made a solid start and took a lead of 40-39, but in the second leg, both the Indian players lost two points due to which the Malaysian pair of Mohammad Juwaidi bin Mazuki and Fatin Noorfatehah Mate Saleh managed to achieve parity.
Reigning senior world champion Deotale missed by a very narrow margin of 10 points, putting pressure on senior teammate Jyoti. Multiple-time World Cup gold medalist Jyoti also missed after this, due to which the Indian pair lost the second leg 38-39. However, the Indian pair showed great spirit and put all arrows on 10 points in the third leg. Mohammad Juwaidi missed his first point of the day, giving India the lead 118-117.
In the decisive fourth phase, Malaysian archers got the first chance and scored 10 points twice in a row. The Indian pair also set both targets at 10 points under pressure. Jyoti’s target of 10 points proved to be decisive after this when 32 year old Fatin could score only eight points and the Malaysian pair had to face defeat.