Jakarta, India’s men’s and women’s compound archery teams overcame Taiwan teams in the semi-finals on Sunday to set up title clashes against South Korean teams at the 18th Asian Games here.
While the men’s team beat Qatar, Philippines and Taiwan in the three matches on the day to be one win away from successfully defending their title, the women’s team got past Indonesia and Taiwan in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively.
The mens’s team, comprising Rajat Chauhan, Aman Saini and Abhishek Verma, began the day with an easy 227-213 victory over Qatar, who lost each of the four sets 52-57, 55-56, 54-56 and 52-58.
In their next match, India pipped Philippines 227-226. While the first set ended 56-56, India took a one point lead at the end of the second set which ended 58-57 in favour of the south Asian outfit.
India won the third set 59-57 to make it a three-point advantage with a total of 173-170. Philippines won the fourth set 56-54 to reduce the deficit by two points but India eventually won 227-226. Two eighths from Abhishek and Saini meant it was a nervy set for the Indians.
In the big semi-final, the Indian team defeated Taiwan’s troika of Lin Chewei, Lin Hsinmin and Pan Yuping 230-227.
The first set ended 57-57, with both teams scoring three 10s each. The second set saw India register a 57-56 victory as they held a one-point lead at 114-113. Chewei of Taiwan scored an eight in his second shot as they trailed India.
The third set, which ended 58-55, gave a four-point advantage to India with the total scores at 172-168. While South Korea scored two 10s, India came up with four 10s. Chewei and Hsinmin scored an eight each but Aman came out with two 9s to ensure India gain crucial advantage.
Trailing by four points, a desperate Taiwan came out all guns blazing and won the fourth set 59-58 but they coulnd’t stop India from winning the match 230-227.
In the fourth set, Taiwan fired five 10s but India didn’t relent and shot four 10s — the last one coming in the fifth and penultimate shot. It meant that Rajat just had to shoot a 7 to secure victory for India. And Rajat came out with a 9 to give India the win.
Out of the eight shots, Jaipur’s Rajat got seven 10s and one nine as he went through a phenomenal run.
Rajat and Abhishek were part of India’s team which won the gold medal in this category at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.
The Indian women’s team of Muskan Kirar, Madhumita Kumari and Jyothi Surekha Vennam pipped Indonesia’s Sri Ranti, Yurike Nina Pereira and Dellie Threesyadinda 229-224 in a pre-quarterfinal clash.
The Indians lost the first set 56-57 before winning the second at 58-56 to take a one-point lead. They again went down in the third set 56-57 but a brilliant performance in the fourth and final set saw them win 59-54.
In the semi-final, India defeated Taiwan’s Liju Chen, Yihsuan Chen and Mingching Lin 225-222.
Despite being at the receiving end in the first two sets at 55-58 and 55-57, the Indians made a brilliant comeback in the last two sets to win 57-55, 58-52.
