Archery World Cup: Indian men’s compound team clinche gold after beating France

Gwangju (South Korea), May 21 (IANS): The Indian mens compound team of Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan and Aman Saini defeated France to win the gold medal at the Archery World Cup 2022 stage 2, here on Saturday.

India came back from behind to outscore the French team of Quentin Baraer, Jean Phillipe Boulch and Adrien Gontier 232-230 for the gold medal.

This was the Indian trio’s second straight World Cup gold after clinching the top spot in Stage 1 in Antalya, Turkey. Interestingly, France were on the losing side then as well.

Meanwhile, former Asian champion Abhishek Verma also won the compound mixed team bronze with Avneet Kaur. The Indian pair beat Turkey’s Emircan Haney and Ayse Suzer 156-155 in the third-place play-off.

India had the opportunity to add another gold to their tally but Mohan Bhardwaj fell short in the individual men’s compound final, going down to top seed Mike Schloesser. Mohan, who was 42nd after the qualification round, lost 141-149 in the decider.

The three medals on Saturday took India’s final tally at the stage 2 of the Archery World Cup 2022 to five.

Earlier, women’s compound team comprising Avneet Kaur, Muskan Kirar and Priya Gurjar and the women’s recurve team of Ridhi, Komalika Bari and Ankita Bhakat had won a bronze each.

However, India’s individual recurve archers failed to get on the podium. Jayanta Talukdar was the only one to reach the top eight in the men’s recurve.