Indian teams storm into finals, in line for a clean sweep

Shillong :Continuing their spectacular show in archery, hosts India remained on course to grab all the 10 gold medals on offer as they stormed into the finals of the recurve and compound team and mixed pair events in the 12th South Asian Games at the Polo Ground here today.

Having ensured four gold and four silver medals making it an all-Indian finals in the individual events yesterday, there was no stopping the hosts in the team events as well.

In the afternoon session, recurve women and compound men’s teams confirmed two more final berths as India stand to benefit heavily with the inclusion of the non-Olympic category of compound section for the first time in the Games.

The Indian archers are in line to win a record haul of 10 gold and four silver medals to better their performance in the last edition of Dhaka in 2010 where they had won four gold, one silver and one bronze.

“Here we don’t have to do anything extraordinary, average scoring will see us through easily,” Olympian Indian archer Jayanta Talukdar told PTI summing up their dominance at the South-Asian level.

In the recurve section finals, men’s and women’s teams will clash against Sri Lanka for the gold medal.

In the compound section finals, India men will clash against Bhutan while women’s got a bye into the final where they take on Bangladesh.

In the mixed recurve final, Tarundeep Rai and Deepika Kumari will face a Bangladeshi pair, while in the compound Abhishek Verma and Purvasha Shende who have got a bye into the final will take on Bangladesh.

Compensating his elimination in the qualification round, the Assamese lad teamed up with in-form Army duo of Tarundeep Rai and Gurucharan Besra to thrash Bhutanese team 5-1 in the semis.

PTI