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Jyothi Surekha Vennam wins her third silver at 2021 Archery World Championships

Jyothi Surekha Vennam Hector Vivas/Getty Images

Indian archer Jyothi Surekha Vennam lost a nerve-wracking final to Colombian heavyweight Sara Lopez to clinch a silver in the compound women's individual section at the World Championships on Saturday.

The 25-year-old Indian was near her best and shot a perfect final end but the five-time World Cup champion Sara was superior to clinch the issue by two points (146-144).

Vennam has now won five medals at the Worlds, including three silvers and two bronzes. Other than the two silvers here, she won two bronzes in 2019 (compound women's team and compound individual) and a silver in 2017 (compound women's team).

Earlier on Friday, Jyothi was a member of the Indian women's and mixed pair compound archery teams which signed off with silver medals after lop-sided losses to Colombia here.

India were in pursuit of their first ever gold medal at the world event.

Jyothi dished out a consistent display shooting 28, 29 and 29 in her first three ends, but the Colombian top seed opened up a two-point lead at the halfway mark, drilling in seven perfect 10s with two X (closest to the centre) from nine arrows.

The sixth seeded Indian shot three 10s from three arrows in the final end but that was not enough as Sara wrapped up the gold medal match by two points.

Earlier, the star Indian mixed pair duo of Abhishek Verma and Jyothi, who stood fourth in the ranking round, started off with a one-point lead but thereafter it was a story of Colombian dominance. The Indians went down by a four-point margin (150-154).

The seventh seeded women's team of Jyothi, Muskan Kirar and Priya Gurjar, on the other hand, lost by a margin of five points (224-229) against the troika of Sara Lopez, Alejandra Usquiano and Nora Valdez. The Colombians, who topped the rankings, drilled in 15 perfect 10s with five Xs. Locked 58-58 after the opening end, the Indian women's team failed to snatch a lead shooting twice in the red circle as their opponents gained a one-point advantage.

There was no stopping the Colombians thereafter as they shot eight 10s from 12 arrows in the last two ends to win their third women's title, and first since 2017.

For Colombia, it reasserted their supremacy in compound archery taking their all-time gold medal count at the World Championships to four.

India are also in contention for one more medal in the individual compound event with Verma slated to compete in his quarterfinal later on Saturday. Ankita Bhakat is the lone archer in fray in the recurve competition and she will compete in her last-eight match on Sunday.