Archery World Cup Stage 3: Abhishek Verma clinches gold

A determined Abhishek Verma clinched a gold medal in the men's compound individual final at the archery World Cup Stage 3 in Medellin, Colombia on Saturday.

The 33-year-old defeated former world number 1 James Lutz of the USA 148-146 in the final.

Abhishek, the multiple World Cup gold medallist, who is making a comeback after missing the first two stages of the World Cup, had earlier stunned the world No 1 and top seed Mike Schloesser of the Netherlands 148-148 (10*-10) in a thrilling shoot-off to advance to the individual semifinal.

The eighth-seeded Verma then defeated Luccas Abreu of Brazil in the last-four clash, which helped him secure a place in the final.

This is Abhishek's third individual World Cup gold, and his first since the 2021 Paris leg. He won his maiden individual World Cup gold in Wroclaw (Poland) in 2015. He also has two silver and a bronze in the individual section of the World Cup.

The Indian contingent, which has won one gold and three bronze medals so far, has a chance to further increase its tally as the recurve mixed team will compete for the bronze later on Sunday.

The team beat France and Netherlands 6-0 to enter the semifinal but lost to Korea 5-3. They will now fight for the bronze with Chinese Taipei.