Junior National Archery: Punjab’s Simranjot, UP’s Sakshi register win in compound round

MARGAO
Simranjot Singh of Punjab and Sakshi Chaudhary of Uttar Pradesh were  crowned the men’s and women’s champions respectively in the Compound  Round individual competition in the 42nd NTPC Junior National  Archery Championship 2022 at SAG ground, Campal. Delhi and  Rajasthan reigned supreme in the men’s and women’s team events  respectively while Maharashtra clinched the mixed-team title. 

The  Compound round, which concluded on Tuesday, saw exciting action  particularly in the men’s final when Punjab’s Simranjot turned the  tussle on its head in the final set to stun GR Shriram of Tamil Nadu  145-144. Trailing 115-118 after four sets of three arrows each,  Simranjot stared with a 10 while GR Shriram choked and shot an 8. Simranjot performed superbly under pressure with two consecutive 10s  while Shriram just couldn’t recover and struck 9,9 to lose the gold  medal from a winning position. 

Earlier, Maharashtra’s Prathamesh Jawkar  won the bronze medal by beating Kushal Dalal of Haryana 145-144.

In  the women’s final, Sakshi Chaudhary got the better of world record  holder Priya Gurjar of Rajasthan, who emerged women’s team champions  while their mixed team bagged a silver medal. In a tight final contest,  Sakshi prevailed 143-142 as Priya suffered a wobble to shoot 10,9,9 in  the final set while her opponent from UP delivered a perfect 10,10,10 to  gain the maximum of 30 points from the three arrows. The bronze medal  in the women’s section went to Maharashtra’s Aditi Gopichand Swami, who  defeated Somanshi Medatwal of Rajasthan, with ease. 

Earlier,  National Games gold-medallist Rishabh Yadav topped the qualification  stage (50+50 metres) with 711 points but he was shocked in the  individual competition by eventual champion Simranjot Singh 145-144 in  the 1/16 Elimination round. 

In the women’s qualification stage,  Priya Gurjar bagged the gold medal with 696 points. Sakshi (695) and  Aditi (685) were placed second and third.

There was more  encouragement in store for Goan archery as Yatin Kaushik made it to the  1/32 stage and then 1/16 round as he defeated Jharkhand’s Ashish Kumar  Singh 140-138. Then in the last-32 match, Yatin went down fighting to  3rd ranked Ritik Chahal of Delhi 141-138.