Archery World Cup: India compound men's team bag gold

Antalya: Indian men’s compound archery team of Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan, and Aman Saini downed France by one point in a thrilling final to win the gold medal at the World Cup Stage 1 here on Saturday.

This was the men’s compound team’s first World Cup gold medal since Shanghai 2017.

India, however, lost out on a second medal after the compound mixed pair of Verma and Muskan Kirar went down 156-157 to Croatia in the bronze medal playoff.

In the compound men’s team final, the Indian trio started off with a one-point deficit, losing the first end 56-57 to their French rivals of Jean Philippe Boulch, Quentin Baraer, and Adrien Gontier.

India slowly improved on their first-end score by one point but the French team had a near-perfect set of 59/60 comprising three-four 10s, including arrows closer to the center (X) to extend their lead (113-116).

Trailing by three points, the Indians showed amazing resilience to drill in a perfect end of 60/60 with two Xs to win the third set 60-58, and curtail the deficit by one point (173-174).

There was no stopping the Indian trio thereafter as they shot a 59 in the fourth end, with the under-pressure Frenchmen managing 57 to go down by one point.

”Mentally we were really strong today, and we’ve been preparing for this event only and we have the Asian Games coming up this year which is something we also want to do well at,” 24-year-old Saini, who bagged his first World Cup gold, said.

”After the gold medal that gives us a great confidence boost, especially for the other world cup events, it will hopefully help us.” On Sunday, India’s recurve mixed team pair of Tarundeep Rai and Ridhi Phor will be vying for a second gold after having defeated Spain in the semi-final 5-3.