The Nîmes Indoor Archery Tournament is an archery event in the Indoor World Series, held annually in Nîmes, France. The 2025 edition took place from January 17 to January 19.
India entered four archers in three categories at the tournament: Abhishek Verma and Rishabh Yadav competed in Compound Men, Jyothi Surekha Vennam in Compound Women, and Atanu Das and Jayanta Talukdar in Recurve Men.
A Surprise Run in Compound Men In the qualification round, Abhishek Verma sailed into the main draw after topping the qualification round, while Rishabh Yadav also made it to the main draw as the 9th seed.
In the first two rounds, Abhishek defeated the 32nd and 16th seeds, while Rishabh overcame the 24th and 8th seeds, setting up a quarterfinal clash between the two Indians. In this encounter, Rishabh got the upper hand, defeating the top seed with a score of 150-148.
Rishabh advanced to the semifinals, where he went past Kyle Douglas of the USA with a score of 148-146. In the nerve-biting final, he faced Nico Wiener of Austria.
Nico took the first set with three 10s. The second and third sets were neck and neck, with both archers hitting triple 10s. Continuing his superb form, Nico scored another triple 10s in the fourth set, while Rishabh hit two 10s and one 9, giving Nico a 2-point lead going into the final set.
Despite Rishabh’s clean triple 10s in the final set to Nico’s two 10s and a 9, it wasn’t enough to close the gap. Nico finished with a total score of 149 to Rishabh’s 148, earning Rishabh a well-deserved silver medal.
A Silver Triumph in Compound Women It was India’s golden girl, Jyothi Surekha Vennam, high on the wins of Indoor World Series Titles in Luxembourg and Taipei towards the end of last year, but she settled for silver after losing to top seed Alejandra Usquiano of Colombia.
Ranked sixth after the qualification round, Jyothi sailed past the 27th, 11th, 3rd, and 7th seeds into the final, where she met the top seed Alejandra. For all five sets, Jyothi trailed behind her opponent, who hit triple 10s in the 1st, 2nd, and 4th sets.
Jyothi’s comeback, hitting triple 10s in the 3rd and 5th sets, just wasn’t enough as she came up one point short to Alejandra’s 147 to her 146. Despite the close loss, winning silver is a strong start to the year, which features high-profile events including the World Championships.
A Promising Show in Recurve Men The recurve men’s category featured Atanu Das and Jayanta Talukdar. Atanu qualified in 15th position into the main draw, while Jayanta, as 39th, didn’t qualify.
Atanu progressed into the quarterfinals with impressive wins over the 18th seed and a dominating performance against the 2nd seed in the second round. However, his run ended in a thrilling final arrow shootout against the 10th seed Matteo Borsani.
Overall, it was a good performance from our archers, considering 4 of the 5 archers reached at least quarterfinals.
