Abhishek Verma wins historic gold in men’s compound event at Archery World Cup in Paris

Star archer Abhishek Verma on Saturday created history by becoming the first man to win two World Cup gold medals in individual compound archery. Verma won the gold medal in the men’s individual compound event at the Archery World Cup Stage 3 in Paris.

Abhishek Verma kept his nerve in a shoot-off against American heavyweight Chris Schaff in the gold medal match in Paris on Saturday. He had earlier won gold in the individual event in Wroclaw in 2015 and silver in 2018.

Abhishek Verma has also won two medals in the World Cup finals, a silver in 2015 and a bronze in 2018.

In the final face-off, the two dropped just two points and were locked on 148—all after rule five was eliminated.
The World No 5 chef opened the shoot-off with a nine and Verma showed the guts of steel, winning the contest with a perfect 10 to open India’s account.

“It’s archery, it’s about hit and miss. My heart beat went up so I just calmed myself down and focused on the next arrow,” Varma said after finishing the nail-bite in Paris .

Earlier, Verma defeated Anton Bulev of Russia 146-138 to make his first World Cup final since Salt Lake City 2018, where he won a silver medal.

Starting with 29, the Indian trailed by one point, with Bulaev shooting three perfect 10s.

But Verma came back strongly with another 29 in the third, before taking the finish line with three perfect 10s.
Reaching the end with a three-point lead, Verma finished it in style with three 10s, including one closest to the center (X).

India are eyeing three more medals in Sunday’s recurve team, individual and mixed pair events, with world number three Deepika Kumari aiming for a hat-trick of gold medals. (with PTI inputs)