Verma and team win successive World Cup archery gold, Mohan Bhardwaj clinches silver

Gwangju (South Korea): The Indian men's compound archery team on Saturday came from behind to prevail over France by two points in an intense finish to win the gold medal in successive World Cup stages.

Unheralded Mohan Bhardwaj also shared the limelight as he stunned reigning world champion Nico Wiener en route to winning a dream World Cup individual silver medal as Indian compound archers outshone their much-fancied recurve teammates.

A day after the Olympic discipline recurve archers ended their campaign with a solitary bronze (in women's team event), India bagged one gold, one silver and one bronze in the compound section on Saturday to end their World Cup Stage 2 campaign with five medals.

That the compound archers bagged one gold, one silver and two bronze from India's total medal count of five summed up their dominance compared to the TOPS-supported Olympic discipline recurve

archers.

India began the day with the men's compound team dishing out a superb fightback to prevail over France 232-230 to win the gold

medal.

In a repeat of the Stage 1 final, the fourth-seeded men's team, comprising Abhishek Verma, Aman Saini and Rajat Chauhan, found itself trailing against its sixth-seed rivals in the first two ends.

But riding on an immaculate finish in the third end the trio sealed a 232-230 win over its French counterparts Adrien Gontier, Jean Philippe Boulch and Qentin Baraer to win the World Cup Stage 2 gold.

In the last World Cup final at Antalya in April, the same Indian trio had defeated France by one-point.

"It's our second consecutive win (this season). We were the best in Turkey and we proved it again. We are very happy about that," Verma said.

"We know the strategy of France and we know their potential. We changed our strategy after the third round and it helped up," Chauhan pointed out.

Verma went on to win a second medal when he along with Avneet Kaur pipped higher-seeded Turkey's Amircan Haney and Ayse Bera Suzer 156-155 to win the bronze in the mixed team event.

For Kaur, this was her second bronze having won a team bronze in the women's event earlier.

Starting off with 39-all, the sixth-seeded Indian duo trailed by two points in the second end (77-79) with its fourth-seeded rivals shooting four 10s including three Xs (closer to the centre). Verma and Kaur narrowed the deficit to one point in the third end shooting 39/40 and finished off in style with a perfect fourth end — four 10s, including one X.

Later in the day, world number 223 Bhardwaj, who made his World Cup debut only last month, conjured up the biggest win of his career when he shocked his world number 7 Austrian opponent 143-141 in the semifinal en route to claim a silver.