Archery World Cup gold brings more responsibility: Jyothi Surekha

Hyderabad: Archer Vennam Jyothi Surekha scripted history recently at the World Cup stage 3 event in Paris. She clinched India’s first-ever World Cup gold medal in the compound mixed team event with veteran Abhishek Verma. On the same day, she also became the first woman compound archer to win a medal for the country at […]

Hyderabad: Archer Vennam Jyothi Surekha scripted history recently at the World Cup stage 3 event in Paris. She clinched India’s first-ever World Cup gold medal in the compound mixed team event with veteran Abhishek Verma. On the same day, she also became the first woman compound archer to win a medal for the country at the World Cup with a silver.

But the 25-year-old Vijayawada archer says there is a lot more to achieve. Speaking from Paris, the 25-year-old girl says the recent results put more responsibility on her shoulders to win more laurels for the country. “I am happy with the way we performed and won India’s first gold in the compound event. But my individual target was to just give my best here. I didn’t worry about the result. Given the competition at this level, we performed well and were delighted with the result,” she said.

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The World No.3 archer also revealed that lack of pressure could be one of the reasons to perform better at this stage. Surekha also missed the individual compound gold by a whisker after going down in final with the slightest of margins. She tied with Ella Gibson of Great Britain in the final but lost in the shootout.

“The final was very tough till the last moment. I lost it in the shootout. But overall, I am very happy,” said the archer. With his medal, her tally in the World Cup rose to nine medals. She has one individual silver while two silver in the women’s team events. She has one gold, one silver and four bronze medals in the mixed team event.

What makes her achievement in Paris more interesting is the fact that she was not part of the first two stages of the World Cup where she failed to qualify for the Indian team. “It was tough not to play in the first stages of the World Cup. I could not qualify for the Indian team after failing to finish among top 4 in the selections held in Sonipat in March. It was more disappointing as they were also selection trials for the Asian Games as well.”

But she bounced back in style making the cut at the next selection trials in May. With the Asian Games postponed, she will get another shot at the showpiece event with fresh trials once the dates are confirmed.

The talented archer now set her sights on next month’s World Games which are scheduled to be held in the USA. Speaking about her target, she revealed, “Definitely once the Asian Games are back, I want to win a medal for the country. For now, I am focused on next month’s World Games. The victory here is a big boost for my confidence.
Becoming the first woman compound archer to win a World Cup medal is delightful. But with this, I also feel more responsible now and want to win more medals for the country. I am more motivated after this result,” she concluded.