Rhine-Ruhr, Essen (Germany), Jul 25 (PTI) India enjoyed by far the best day at the ongoing World University Games with its archers clinching three medals, including a mixed compound gold, while pole vaulter Dev Meena bettered his own NR and Ankita topped her women’s 3000m steeplechase heat as they both qualified for the finals, here on Friday.
Following a gold, silver and a bronze in archery, India have taken their tally at the WUG to five medals. India had won bronze medals in mixed team badminton and women’s singles tennis earlier.
India’s Parneet Kaur and Kushal Dalal held their nerves in a thrilling finish to beat South Korea’s Yerin Park and Seunghyun Park and clinch the mixed compound archery gold medal.
Parneet and Dalal’s triumph also gave India its first gold at the event, adding to two other medals won in archery team events earlier in the day.
Both archers had to deal with disappointment as Dalal settled for a silver in the men’s team event, while the Asian Games team gold medallist Parneet returned with a bronze in the women’s team event.
The duo showed remarkable character and composure in the mixed pair event to overturn a one-point deficit at the halfway mark, nailing eight perfect arrows — including one ‘X’ (closer to the centre) — across the final two ends to seal a 157-154 win.
In the mixed team final, both the sides were locked at 39-39 in the first end.
The Koreans then edged ahead by a point after the second end, leading 78-77.
However, Parneet and Dalal came back brilliantly in the penultimate end, shooting four perfect 10s with an X to grab a three-point lead at 117-114 as the Korean duo faltered with two 9s and an 8.
Keeping their composure, the Indian pair delivered another flawless 40 in the final end. Although the Korean team also shot a perfect 40 in response, it was not enough to deny India the gold.
Earlier, the women’s compound team of Parneet, Avneet Kaur and Madhura Dhamangaonkar opened India’s account with a commanding 232-224 win over Great Britain’s Chloe A’Bear, Hallie Boulton and Grace Chappell in the bronze-medal match.
The Indian trio dropped just one point in the first end to build an eight-point cushion, which they maintained with consistent shooting, sealing the bronze with another strong fourth-end score of 59.
The men’s compound team of Dalal, Sahil Jadhav and Hritik Sharma came agonisingly close to winning the gold medal, losing by just one point to Turkey’s Bauhan Akcaoglu, Yunus Emre Arslan and Yakum Yildiz.
The Indian men led by one point after the first end (58-57) and stretched it to 117-114 midway through the match. But Turkey bounced back with a perfect 60 in the third end to level at 174-174 and edged ahead in the final round, shooting 58 against India’s 57 to snatch gold by the narrowest of margins.
India remain in contention for more medals, with Dalal and Jadhav set for an all-India clash in the men’s individual semifinals on Saturday. Parneet is also eyeing an individual podium finish and will face South Korea’s S Kim in her semifinal bout.
Dev Meena, Ankita excel ================ Dev Kumar Meena bettered his own pole vault national record with an effort of 5.40m to qualify for the final round. The 20-year-old Meena finished fifth in the Group A qualification round and sixth overall as he bettered his earlier national record of 5.35m set in April in Kochi during the Federation Cup by 0.05m.
He began at 5.05m which he cleared in his first attempt, before also soaring above 5.25m in his first try. He faltered in his first attempt when the bar was raised to 5.40m but successfully cleared the national record height in his second attempt.
This was the third time Meena, the leading pole vaulter in the country, had broken the national record this year. He had also won gold in the Uttarakhand National Games in February with the then national record height of 5.32m.
Ankita topped Heat 1 by clocking 9:54.79 seconds in the gruelling race and the 23-year-old will be in contention for a medal on Sunday. She has a personal and season’s best of 9:39.00, which puts her among the leading contenders.
Meanwhile, national record holder Animesh Kujur finished fourth in the men’s 200m final, clocking 20.85 seconds on Thursday night. His national record stands at 20.32 seconds.
The Indian mixed 4x400m relay team also ended at fourth with a time of 3:18.40.
Shuttler Devika loses ============== In badminton, Decika Sihag lost her women’s singles quarterfinal match to Malaysia’s Ling Ching Wong 15-17, 11-15 while the women’s doubles pair of Devika and Aditi Bhatt too bowed out in the last-eight stage, losing to the Chinese pair of Liu Jia Yue/Tang Rui Zhi 11-15, 15-17. PTI TAP PDS AM AH
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