At the World Archery Championships 2023 in Berlin, Germany, on Saturday, Aditi Gopichand Swami of India and Ojas Pravin Deotale of India took home gold medals in the women’s and men’s solo compound events, respectively.
India won three gold medals and one bronze at the Berlin archery competition. Compound archers won all of the medals. India’s greatest medal total in the world championships was the number of medals won. India hadn’t won a gold medal since the competition’s inception in 1931.
Aditi Gopichand Swami, 17, who was seeded sixth, upset Andrea Becerra of Mexico 149-147 in the finals match to win the solo event at the senior world championships at the youngest age ever. She is an U18 world champion and record holder, won the semi-final match against second-seeded fellow Indian Jyothi Surekha Vennam 149-145 to advance to the gold medal match.
In the women’s individual compound event, Jyothi Surekha Vennam beat Ipek Tomruk of Turkey 150-146 to win the bronze medal.
Parneet Kaur, another Indian archer, was eliminated in the quarterfinals after falling to Jyothi Surekha Vennam. Prior to that, Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur, and Aditi Gopichand Swami won the women’s compound team competition, giving India its first-ever gold medal at the world championships.
Ojas Pravin Deotale of India won the men’s individual compound event later in the day. Ojas Pravin Deotale became the first Indian male archer to win a gold medal at the world championships by defeating Poland’s Lukasz Przybylski 150-149 in a hard-fought final.
On Saturday, India’s participation in the Berlin meet came to an end. The Indian recurve archers did not advance to the medal rounds, hence they did not receive one of the available Olympic quota spots for the Paris 2024 Games. The Olympics only have recurve archery competitions.
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