WUG2025: Compound archers Kushal Dalal, Sahil Jadhav set up semifinal battle

India’s none-too-happy outing in the FISU World University Games 2025 in Germany continued, with its medal haul remaining static at one bronze. However, the Compound archers promised to deliver at least one, if not two, medals from individual competitions. The archery squad will expect to add more medals in the six team events.

Kushal Dalal and Sahil Rajesh Jadhav set up a semifinal clash, ensuring at least one Indian in the men’s Compound Archery gold medal match. Parneet Kaur made it to women’s Compound semifinal on a day when Indian Recurve men’s archers exited before the last eight and Basanto Mahato’s journey ended in the  women’s quarterfinal stage.

With Shooting excluded from the Rhine-Rhur 2025 schedule – and with Association of Indian Universities not raking it up –  India seems set to return from Germany with fewer medals than the 26 it won in Chengdu two years ago. It is assured of at least two more medals, including one for Vaishnavi Adkar in women’s singles Tennis.

Vaishnavi Adkar’s hopes of returning with two medals from the Tennis competition were dashed when Atharva Brijmohan Sharma and she lost the mixed doubles quarterfinals to Natsuki Yoshimoto and Jay Dylan Hara Friend (Japan) 0-6, 5-7. She will compete against Slovakia’s Eszter Meri in the women’s singles semifinals on Thursday.

In athletics, KM Chanda entered the women’s 800m final after a gutsy run saw her finish second in her semifinals in 2:02.05. Samardeep Singh Gill qualified for the men’s Shot Put final with a 19.10 effort in the qualification while Sanya Yadav entered the women’s Discus Throw final. Animesh Kujur eased in to the men’s 200m semifinals with a 21.16 second run.

The shock of the day for the contingent would have come from the Long Jump pit where National Record holder Jeswin Aldrin was eliminated at the qualification stage itself. Only two jumpers earned automatic qualification by crossing 7.95m mark. The last of the 12 finalists leapt 7.60m. Jeswin Aldrin, with a personal best of 8.42m, had a best effort of 7.43m.

Archery

Men

Recurve Individual Pre-Quarterfinals: Aryan Rana lost to Funahashi Yuya (Japan) 2-6 (28-29, 28-25, 26-27, 27-28); Second round: Aryan Rana beat Mahammadali Aliyev (Azerbaijan) 6-4; Vishnu Choudhary lost to Abdullah Yildirmis (Turkey) 2-6; Mrinal Chauhan lost to Berkim Tumer (Turkey) 4-6.

Compound Individual Quarterfinals: Kushal Dalal beat Ruven Fluss (Germany) 148-146; Sahil Rajesh Jadhav beat Finlay Clark (Britain)( 164-142; Pre-Quarterfinals: Kushal Dalal beat Yunus Emre Arslan (Turkey) 148-148 (10-9); Sahil Rajesh Jadhav beat Aljaz Matija Brenk (Slovenia) 148-147; Hritik Sharma lost to Francois Dubois (France) 143-146.

Women

Recurve Individual Quarterfinals: Basanti Mahato lost to Uehara Ruka (Japan) 1-7 (26-29, 27-27, 27-29, 27-29). Pre-quarterfinals: Basanti Mahato beat Catalina Gniriega (USA) 6-2; Second round: Basanti Mahato beat Syqquera Mashayikh (Malaysia) 6-4; Aditi Jaiswal lost to Regina Kellerer (Germany) 4-6; Bhajan Kaur lost to Megan Denier (Austria) 3-7.

Compound Individual Quarterfinals: Parneet Kaur beat Alyssia Chambraud (France) 144-141; Avneet Kaur lost to Moon Yeeun (South Korea) 140-146. Pre-quarterfinals: Parneet Kaur beat Low Ellie Teng Teng (Singapore) 148-144; Avneet Kaur beat Madhura Dhamangaonkar 145-142. 

Athletics

Men

200m Heats: 14. Animesh Kujur 21.16 seconds; 24. Manikanta Hoblidhar 21.42.
10000m Final: 18. Kiran Pandurang Matre 29:49.40; 26. Abhishek Kanamma Devkate 33:46.77; 27. Trilok Kumar 36:00.27.
110m Hurdles: Rahil Sakeer Vadakkepurath Disqualfied; Tejas Ashok Shirse Did Not Start.
Long Jump Qualification: 11. David Patturaj Solomon 7.63m; 18. Jeswin Aldrin 7.43.
Shot Put Qualification: 4. Samardeep Singh Gill 19.10m; 21. Sawan 17.03.

Women

200m Heats: 19. Angelsilva Mariya Muthu Raja 24.01 seconds; 29. Sonia 24.84.
800m Semifinals: 4. KM Chanda 2:02.05; 17. Amandeep Kaur 2:04.84.
Discus Thow: 9. Sanya Yadav 51.21; 14. Priya 48.25.
Heptathlon (after 4 events): 21. Pooja 3017 points (100mH: 14.97; HJ: 1.71; SP: 11.15; 200m: 26.09); 27. Tanushree 2675 (15.53; 1.62; 8.68; 27.15).

Badminton

Men’s Singles Second Round: Darshan Pujari beat Mahd Shaikh (Saudi Arabia) 15-6, 12-15, 15-5; Dayanand Saneeth beat Lukasz Cimosz (Poland) 15-8, 15-13; AR Rohan Kumar Anandas beat Pui Chi Chan (Macao) 15-9, 15-10.

Women’s Singles Second round: Aditi Bhatt beat Deide Oduk (Netherlands) 15-10, 15-7; Devika Sihag beat Christina Olajumoke Obasanmi (Nigeria) 15-4, 15-4.

Men’s Doubles Second Round: Dayanand Saneeth and Darshan Pujari lost to Natan Begga and Baptiste Labarthe (France) 7-15, 8-15.

Women’s Doubles Second Round: Aditi Bhatt and Devika Sihag beat Chan Ying Xuan Chloe and Choo Yan Ying Desire (Singapore) 15-5, 15-8. Vaishnavi Khadkekar and Alisha Khan lost to Yasemen Bektas and Tugcenur Korkmaz (Turkey) 11-15, 8-15.

Basketball

Men’s 9-16 placing match: India 77 (Nathan Abraham Billa 17, Mohammad Ishaan 15, Anshuman Shekhawat 15) lost to Chinese Taipei 102 (Lee Yun-Chieh 16, Hu Chin-Hao 13). Quarters: 20-32, 13-17, 22-28, 22-25.

Women’s 13-16 placing match: India 58 (Priyanka Behal 22, Akshaya Phillip 14) lost to Romania 109 (Anisia Crotiru 20, Evelina-Maria Petrof 20). Quarters: 14-13, 14-25, 21-43, 9-28.

Beach Volleyball

Men’s Preliminary Pool F: India lost to Lebanon 12-21, 16-21.

Women’s Preliminary Pool C: India beat Azerbaijan 22-20, 21-18.

Judo

Men

60kg Pre-quarterfinals: Lucky lost to Tumenjargal Tuvshintur (Mongolia) by Ippon in 0:38 seconds.
66kg Pre-quarterfinals: Mayank Kadian lost to Petros Chirstodoulides (Cyprus) by Ippon (2:04).

Women

48kg Pre-quarterfinals: Rishita Haribhai Kareliya lost to Laziza Haydarova (Uzbekistan) by Ippon (1:01).
57kg First round: Rupanshi lost to Giulia Carna by Ippon (1:38).

Swimming

Men

400m Individual Medley: 18. Shoan Ganguly 4:33.56; 25. Anurag Singh 4:54.02.
4x100m Medley Relay: 15. India (Srihari Nataraj, Vidhith Shiva Sankar, Benedicton Rohit, Jashua Thomas Durai) 3:42.95.

Women

400m Freestyle Heats: 28. Bhavya Sachdeva 4:28.37; 35. Ashmitha Chandra 4:40.27.
4x100m Medley Relay: 15. India (Pratyasa Ray, Naga Greehmini Vasupalli, Nilabjaa Ghosh, Nina Venkatesh) 4:35.31.

Taekwondo (Kyorugi)

Men’s Team First Round: India lost to Poland 0-2.

Women’s Team First Round: India lost to Ukraine 0-2.
Mixed Team Quarterfinals: India lost to Germany 0-2; First round: India beat Romania 2-1.

Tennis

Mixed Doubles Quarterfinals: Vaishnavi Adkar and Atharva Brijmohan Sharma lost to Natsuki Yoshimoto and Jay Dylan Hara Friend (Japan) 0-6, 5-7.