The men’s recurve archery team of Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia on Friday downed Italy to reach the final and put India in line for yet another gold medal in the World Cup Stage 2 at Porec, Croatia.
India will face Russian Federation for the recurve team gold on Saturday.
The Indian outfit had no problem in thrashing Slovakia 224-193 in the first round.
Later, they tamed USA 227-218 in the quarterfinals in a field of 16 teams.
Carrying on the momentum, India then beat Italy who had Athens Olympics gold medalist Marco Galiazzo 225-220.
Galiazzo, incidentally, is Talukdar’s final opponent in the individual event.
On 5th April, the trio of Talukdar, Banerjee and Champia had earned India the men’s recurve team gold medal in the Archery World Cup Stage 1 at Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic.
Indian women’s recurve side was not much behind, with Bombayla Devi, Rimil Buriuly and Dola Banerjee, making the bronze medal play-off against Ukraine.
The women’s side, ranked ninth, had a tough outing in the first round against eighth-ranked Great Britain.
The two teams were locked 217-217 before the Indians prevailed in the tie-breaker 28-23.
Getting a fillip from the win, Indian eves upset top seed Italy in the quarter finals 217-212.
However, the women’s joy lasted till last four as they were beaten by fourth ranked France 206-209.
In the third place play-off, they would take on the Ukraine eves.
