Archery World C'ships: Compound men's team strikes gold, mixed team takes silver

Gwangju, Sep 7 (IANS) India's men's compound archery team of Aman Saini, Rishabh Yadav and Prathamesh Bhalchandra Fuge clinched India’s first-ever Compound Men’s Team Gold at the World Archery Championships here on Sunday.

The Indian trio showcased the nerve of steel to beat the French team of Nicolas Girard, Jean Philippe Boulch and François Dubois, who booked themselves into its first World Championship gold medal match since Jakarta 1995 World Archery Championships, the very edition where the compound team was first incorporated into the event and won by Les Bleus.

The Indian men's team kickstarted their campaign in the second round, where they edged out the Australian team in a shoot-off (30-28) after the score was tied 232 after the fourth end. They then secured a narrow 234-233 win over America in the quarterfinal before beating Turkiye 234-232 in the semifinals.

This was Rishabh's second medal of the day, as he earlier teamed up with Jyothi Surekha Vennam in the compound mixed team final. The India duo, however, went down to the Dutch duo of Mike Schloesser and Sanne de Laat in the gold medal match to take the silver medal.

Rishabh and Jyothi, who broke the 144-arrow world record at Shanghai 2025 - stage 2 of the World Cup – in May and grabbed gold at Central Florida 2025 World Cup stage 1 together and bronze at Madrid 2025 World Cup stage 4, dropped just six nines out of their three matches and hit a perfect 160 (7 Xs) against helpless Germany in the second round before defeating Chinese Taipei 157-155 in the semifinal to make the gold final.

This is India's second compound mixed team medal at a World Championships – following their silver in Yankton 2021, where Jyothi featured again alongside Abhishek Verma.

--IANS

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