Auburndale (USA), Apr 12 (PTI) The Indian compound mixed team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Rishabh Yadav clinched the gold medal at the Archery World Cup Stage 1, defeating their Chinese Taipei opponents Huang I-Jou and Chen Chieh-Lun 153-151 in a tough final here on Saturday.

The Indian mixed pair lost the first and second series 37-38 and 38-39 before they came back strongly in the third set winning 39-38 thanks to two 10s and an ‘inner 10’.

They then easily won the fourth and decisive series 39-36 for an aggregate score of 153-151.

They had beaten Slovenia on Friday to assure India of a third medal.

The Indian duo’s gold-winning feat came close on the heels of the event’s addition to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics programme.

Jyothi and Rishabh, who were fifth seeds by virtue of their qualification scores, had beaten Spain (156-149) in the opening round, Denmark (156-154) in the quarterfinals, before getting the better of Slovenia (159-155) in the last-four round.

This was after a jet-lagged Dhiraj Bommadevara, who landed in the US just hours before the competition due to visa issues, showed remarkable composure to guide the Indian men’s recurve team into the final on Thursday.

The fifth-seeded Indian team, also comprising seasoned campaigners Tarundeep Rai and Atanu Das, defeated Spain 6-2 to assure the country of a second medal at the season-opening World Cup. India will now face third-seeded China in the gold-medal clash on Sunday.

India had already opened their account with a bronze medal from the compound men’s team event on Wednesday. PTI AM AM PDS PDS