Medellin: Teenager Aditi Swami smashed the under-18 world record to qualify top in the third stage of the Archery World Cup in Medellin, Colombia. The 16-year-old, who won a silver at the Asia Cup Leg 3 in Sharjah last December, topped the compound women's field with 711 points out of a possible 720, here on Tuesday.
In her maiden World Cup season, Aditi beat the previous best of 705, set only recently in May by Liko Arreola, who was also making her debut for the US senior team, finishing ninth (698). "I feel amazing and I am very happy," said the Indian teenager. "I didn't expect that I was going to shoot like that and that score, but now I am very happy with that score because I'm only 16 years old."
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Aditi finished ahead of compatriot and multiple World Cup gold medalist Jyothi Surekha Vennam and home favourite Sara Lopez in the 72-arrow 50-metre qualification. It was a strong day for India, with three of the top six women including the top two Aditi and Jyothi with Lopez the next highest seed having led at the halfway stage.
The Indian women's compound team of Aditi, Jyothi (708) and Parneet Kaur (700) also topped the qualification but only to miss the team world record set by the Korea (2120) by just one point. Making a comeback, veteran Abhishek Verma who was sidelined in the first two stages of the World Cup finished eighth (707 points) to top among the Indians.
Ojas Deotale finished 13th with 703 while Prathamesh Samadhan Jawkar ended at 19th place, one-point adrift. Rajat Chauhan (698) was 28th as the Indian compound men's team totalled 2112 points to bag the second spot behind USA.
