Nineteen-year-old Prathamesh Jawkar shocked World No.1 Mike Schloesser to claim his maiden gold medal on a day that witnessed the Indian compound archers’ fine showing at the Archery World Cup Stage-2 in Shanghai on Saturday.
Apart from Jawkar, V. Jyothi Surekha and Ojas Deotale secured their second consecutive mixed team gold and Avneet Kaur picked up the women’s individual bronze to mark a fruitful day for the country.
Jawkar beat Estonia’s Robin Jaatma 147-145 in the semifinals before upsetting Dutchman Schloesser, an indoor and outdoor World champion who has claimed altogether 12 individual gold medals in different stages and finals of the World Cup, 149-148 in a keenly-contested final. The two archers were tied 29-29, 59-59, 89-89 and 119-119 in the first four ends. Jawkar held his nerve to shoot his fourth consecutive 30, while Schloesser slipped a bit in the final end.
Before this, Abhishek Verma won a compound men’s individual gold medal in a 2021 World Cup stage in Paris.
The sixth-placed Indian pair of the experienced Jyothi Surekha and young Deotale upset the top-ranked Korean duo of Oh Yoohyun and Kim Jongho 156-155 in the mixed team summit clash to win the gold medal.
The two teams were tied in the first three ends before India prevailed over Korea 39-38 in the final end with Jyothi shooting a 10 in the last shot of the match.
Eighteen-year-old Avneet lost to World No.1 Ella Gibson 144-146 in the semifinals, but raised her game to beat Turkey’s Ipek Tomruk 147-144 for the bronze.
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