Jawkar’s win secured a second title for the visiting Indian compounds after Parneet Kaur beat teammate Jyothi Surekha Vennam, 146-145, in the women’s final, in a match between the top two seeds (and a rematch of the recent Asian Archery Championships in Bangkok).
Neither seemed especially dominant in the Taipei finals arena.
Kaur was a point behind going into the fifth end before Vennam let two nines slip to hand Kaur the victory (mirroring the result from Thailand), 146-145.
“I am happy with today’s performance,” said Kaur. “I had a little issue with aiming but I managed it well.”
India had two other podiums in the championship categories (senior and under-21) in Taipei: Aman Saini’s compound men’s third place and three in the youth competitions, including wins Sachin Chaudhary (compound under-21 men) and Bhajan Kaur (recurve under-21 women).
The rest of the medals went to local archers, with the headline being former world champion Lei Chien-Ying’s return to the top of the results list.
At 33 years of age but shooting in her first international indoor event, Lei staved off stiff contest from 21st seed Su Hsin-Yu, finding a 10 when she needed it at the end of the fourth set that would prove decisive. Both went clean in the last, but that gave Lei the set points she needed to win, 6-4.
Experience, it seemed, won the match.
“I’m just lucky. So I feel very happy to get this gold medal,” Lei played down the result.
Tai Yu-Hsuan edged out Olympic team silver medallist Tang Chih-Chun to the recurve men’s title, shooting three perfect sets in a 6-4 win.
The Indoor Archery World Series continues after the new year break, with a 500-level event in Nimes in January followed by the last (1000-pointer) leg and Indoor Archery World Series Finals in Las Vegas in February.
