Archery WC: Rishabh, Jyothi set mixed team world record in Madrid

Madrid, July 9 (IANS) India’s Rishabh Yadav and Jyothi Surekha Vennam shone at the fourth and final stage of the Archery World Cup here as they set new Compound Mixed Team world record during the qualification round.

The Indian duo totalled 1431 (70 Xs) in the qualification and broke the mixed team 144-arrow score, which was previously held by Denmark's Tanja Gellenthien and Mathias Fullerton at 1429 from the Krakow-Malopolska 2023 European Games.

“It's special because the mixed team is newly added to the Olympics and we’ve been having such small achievements over time,” the 22-year-old Rishabh was quoted as saying by World Archery.

“We opened the season with the mixed team gold together (Florida 2025) but we didn't shoot the mixed team the next two stages together. "Now here in the fourth stage we are back together, and we both shot good so it's interesting and we are happy with the consistency we have together," he added.

Meanwhile, Rishabh and Jyothi poled in the compound men’s and women's individual qualification, grabbing the top seedings in both individual and team events.

Rishabh stayed on top of the 85-athlete field throughout the evening at Vallehermoso Stadium and was on course to beat Braden Gellenthien’s 718 individual compound men's world record at 30 arrows with a perfect 300.

But, 68 out of 72 arrows in the 10-ring (35Xs) is still a magnificent score and the Shanghai 2025 – stage two – bronze medallist’s 716 is a new personal best.

Other Indian in action, Priyansh (710) and Aman Saini (709) were the next best from the country, placing 10th and 11th overall, respectively.

In the compound women’s, Asian Games champion Jyothi too set an international personal best at 715 (35Xs) simultaneously grabbing top seed in her event.

"I have been shooting good this year but somewhere I just felt there was something left behind. But today, since the morning practice I felt really, really good with the way I was shooting, and I just wanted to shoot the same way in the qualification," said Jyothi, who hadn’t poled in the prior three World Cups this year.

Parneet Kaur (702) and 16-year-old debutant Prithika Pradeep (699) secured seventh and 10th places respectively, contributing to India’s top seeding in the women’s team event with a total score of 2116 points, ahead of Mexico (2108) and South Korea (2095).

--IANS

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