Compound archer Aditi becomes senior world champion at 17

Aditi Swami shot a near perfect score of 149 out of a possible 150 points to prevail over the Mexican giant-killer by two points

Berlin: Less than two months after she won the junior world title, 17-year-old Aditi Swami on Saturday became the senior world champion when she defeated Andrea Becerra of Mexico in the compound women’s final of the World Archery Championships, here on Saturday.

The Satara teenager, who had won the Under-18 title in Youth Championships in Limerick in July, shot a near perfect score of 149 out of a possible 150 points to prevail over the Mexican giant-killer by two points.

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The 16th seed Andrea had knocked out reigning champion Sara Lopez in the pre-quarterfinals.

But Andrea faced a tough challenge from the sixth seeded Indian, who started off with a bang, drilling in all her first three arrows closer to the centre (X) to take a 30-29 first round lead.

Aditi was on target in all of her 12 arrows in the first four rounds to extend her lead by three points.

It was only in the final end, she shot one 9 out of the three arrows, but by then she had already sealed India’s second World Championship gold ever.

Aditi along with Parneet Kaur and Jyothi Surekha Vennam had secured India’s first ever World Archery Championships gold by winning the compound women’s team final on Friday.

Earlier in the day, she had ousted her ‘idol’ and the most successful Indian compound archer Jyothi Surekha Vennam 149-145 in an all-Indian semifinal.

Jyothi, however, went on to win a bronze medal when she shot a perfect 150 to defeat Ipek Tomruk of Turkey by four points in the third-place play-off.

Jyothi now has one gold, four silver and three bronze medals from three editions of the World Archery Championships.