Abhishek Verma on Saturday created history by becoming the first man to win two World Cup gold medals in individual compound archery.
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Indian compound archer Abhishek Verma achieved a truly exceptional feat on Saturday as he beat world number 5 Kris Schaff to bag the gold medal at the Archery World Cup Stage 3 in Paris. That made him the first man to win two World Cup gold medals in individual compound archery. Verma’s victory comes two months after the Indian team was barred from boarding the flight to Guatemala City after a false positive COVID-19 report for the coach. The final was a nail-biting encounter as both Verma and American heavyweight Kris Schaff dropped only two points each to get tied at 148 points. As the match went to a shootout, Verma remained calm and composed going on to seal the gold medal following a magnificent 10-9 victory over the American. He had a perfect score at the shootout.
“That’s archery, it’s all about hits and misses. My heartbeat went up so I just calmed myself down and kept my focus on the next arrow,” Verma said.
His last individual world cup gold medal came six years ago at Wroclaw in 2015. The 32-year-old had qualified as the 11th seed and was six places behind Schaff. He had an incredible start to the final as he managed to hit all three Xs.
What was even more impressive was that Verma was someone who had not played a single international tournament for two years before this. It was incredible how he managed to hold his nerve and cope with the pressure despite not having any recent experience. The last time Indian compound archers had participated in any international tournament was back in the 2019 Asian Games. At the time, the duo of Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam had helped India defeat Chinese Taipei to clinch the gold medal. While Abhishek has certainly made the nation proud in archery, Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhury made their presence felt in the field of shooting.
Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary won their sixth 10M Air Pistol Mixed Team International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup medal on the trot, recording their first silver after a run of five gold medals. The duo went down to the Russian pair of Vitalina Batsarashkina and Artem Chernousov 12-16 in the gold medal match on Saturday in Osijek, Croatia.
The Indian duo fought hard, levelling at 6-6 and then fighting back from 6-12 to level it back at 12-12. However, that was not enough to get the better of the Russian pair who can be quite difficult to get the better of.
The Indian team is currently placed ninth in the medals tally, following one silver and two bronze medals at the ongoing Osijek shooting world cup. Russia top the table currently with three gold medals for a total of seven medals.
A total of 17 nations have won medals at the Osijek ISSF Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun World Cup stage. This competition marks the final world level competition before the Tokyo 2020 summer Olympics next month.
Rio Olympic silver medallist Batsarashkina and World Championship gold medallist in the discipline Artem Chernousov, had earlier topped the second qualification round. They shot a combined 390 out of 400, to qualify for the gold medal match-up against the Indian duo, who came in second with 387.
Manu and Saurabh had topped the field in the first qualifying round shooting 587 out of 600 after 60 shots (30 shots each team member). Abhishek Verma and Yashaswini Deswal, the second Indian pair in the fray, shot a combined 577, to finish fourth out of 32 teams.
