-Olympics
Indian archer Prathamesh Jawkar narrowly missed out on a gold in the men’s compound event and settled for a silver medal at the Archery World Cup Final 2023 in Hermosillo, Mexico on Saturday.
World No. 14 Prathamesh Jawkar was up against the 10th-ranked Mathias Fullerton of Denmark in the gold medal match, which ended in a 148-148 tie after five sets. While both archers hit a 10 in the shoot-off, Mathias Fullerton was declared winner as his shot was closer to the centre.
Prathamesh Jawkar’s day began with a convincing 149-141 victory against Italian Miguel Becerra, world No. 5, in the quarter-final. The Indian then shot a perfect 150 against world No. 1 Mike Schloesser of the Netherlands to beat the second-seeded archer by a point to book his berth in the final.
Abhishek Verma, who was the first Indian men’s compound archer to win a silver at the Archery World Cup Final in 2015, missed out on a medal after losing the bronze medal match.
Verma defeated American Sawyer Sullivan in the tie-breaker of the quarter-finals after scores were level at 146. In the semi-finals, the Indian lost 150-147 to eventual gold medallist Mathias Fullerton of Denmark.
Abhishek Verma produced his best performance of the day in the bronze medal match against Mike Schloesser, scoring 149 points in five sets. However, Schloesser emerged victorious having shot a perfect 150.
In the women’s compound event, reigning world champion Aditi Gopichand Swami suffered an upset in the quarter-finals against Dane Tanja Gellenthien. After the scores were level at 145 in five sets, Gellenthien progressed to the semi-finals with a 10-9 win in the tie-breaker.
Jyothi Surekha Vennam, who was part of the team that won gold medal at the world championships in Berlin earlier this year, also bowed out in the quarter-finals after losing to defending champion Sara Lopez of Colombia.
Lopez shot a 10 on 14 occasions to finish with 149 points. Jyothi Surekha Vennam was off to a shaky start and managed only 144 points allowing the Colombian archer to progress to the next round.
Sara Lopez went on to win her eighth world title, beating Tanja Gellenthien 143-142 in the final. Dafne Quintero of the host nation beat the Republic of Korea’s Cho Su A 144-142 to win the bronze.
Dhiraj Bommadevara, India’s only recurve archer at the Archery World Cup Final 2023 at Hermosillo, lost the bronze medal match on Sunday.
Bommadevara defeated Korea’s two-time Olympic champion Kim Woojin 6-2 in the quarter-finals but went down against the top-seeded Korean Lee Woo Seok 1-7 in the semi-final.
The Indian archer lost to Italy’s Mauro Nespoli, a Tokyo 2020 silver medallist, 6-5 in the bronze medal match to return empty-handed.
Featured Image: SportsUnfold