Gwangju

Indian archers made a spectacular start to their World Championships campaign, storming into the finals of the compound men's team and mixed pair events to assure at least two medals on Saturday.

The men's team showed remarkable composure under pressure, coming from behind in all three contests -- edging past Australia in a shoot-off, pipping the USA by a single point, and then toppling third seed Turkey by two points -- to storm into Sunday's gold medal clash against France.

Making his World Championship debut, 23-year-old Rishabh Yadav, who was India's top performer in qualification with 709 points for an eighth seeding, also kept himself in line for a double.

After guiding the men's team to the final, he partnered seasoned campaigner Jyothi Surekha Vennam to the mixed team title round, defeating Germany, El Salvador and Chinese Taipei in largely one-sided contests. The Indian pair will face the Netherlands for gold on Sunday.

Jyothi, 29, already has a mixed team silver from Yankton 2021 with Abhishek Verma, and will aim to go one step further this time.

She is making her seventh World Championship appearance.

Earlier in qualification, Yadav's 709 points helped India secure the second seeding in the men's team event alongside Aman Saini (707, 15th seed) and Prathamesh Fuge (706, 19th).

The trio began by eliminating eighth seed Australia in a shoot-off after a 232-232 tie, clinching it 30-28.

They held their nerve against heavyweights USA, winning narrowly 234-233, before once again coming from behind to stun Turkey 234-232 in the semis.

Against Australia, India were under early pressure as their rivals shot 59 to lead by a point, before stretching it to two points after three rounds.

The Indians responded with a flawless final end of all 10s to force a shoot-off, where the Australians crumbled under pressure.

The script repeated against the USA as India trailed by a point early, but bounced back strongly with three consecutive 59s.

Versus Turkey, they again fell behind by two points before producing back-to-back perfect 60s to seal victory.

In the mixed event, Jyothi and Yadav, seeded fourth after strong qualification rounds (Jyothi was third), were nearly flawless.

They opened with a perfect 160 out of a maximum 160 from 16 arrows to cruise past Germany 160-152, and in the next two rounds dropped just three points each to march into the final.

Jyothi, however, endured disappointment in the women's team event as she would miss out on defending the women's team gold from Berlin 2023.

The third-seeded trio of Jyothi, Parneet Kaur and Prithika Pradeep suffered a surprise pre-quarterfinal exit, losing 229-233 to 14th-seeded Italy.

Earlier, with his eighth-place qualification, Yadav was the best among Indians in men's individual ranking and will start directly from the round of 32 in the individual round.

READ MORE: Golam Faruk and Geeti Hakim are transforming lives with love and compnassion

Saini (15th) and Fuge (19th) also progressed to their respective individual elimination rounds.