World Archery Championships: Aditi clinches individual compound gold medal

Berlin (Germany): India's Aditi Gopichand Swami clinched the gold medal in the women's individual compound event at the World Archery Championships 2023 after defeating Andrea Becerra of Mexico 149-147 in the final, here on Saturday.

With her gold, the 17-year-old Aditi, who was seeded sixth in the qualifying round, has become the youngest archer to top the podium in an individual category at the senior world championships.

Aditi, a U18 world champion and world record holder, defeated fellow Indian Jyothi Surekha Vennam, seeded second, 149-145 in the semifinals to book her place in the final.

Meanwhile, Jyothi Surekha Vennam beat Ipek Tomruk of Turkey 150-146 to win the bronze medal in the women's individual compound event.

Another Indian archer, Parneet Kaur, was knocked out in the quarterfinals after losing to Jyothi.

Earlier, Jyothi, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Gopichand Swami had teamed up to win the women's compound team event and clinched India's first-ever gold at the archery world championships.

In the compound men's and mixed team events, Indian archers failed to progress beyond the quarter-final stage. None of the Indian recurve archers made the medal rounds, thereby failing to win any Olympic quota places for the Paris Olympics on offer in Berlin. Only recurve archery competitions are held at the Olympics.

India have so far won three medals -- two gold and one bronze -- in the World Archery Championships 2023, which is the first qualifier event for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games for the archers.