Paris: India claimed a compound team double with men’s and women’s gold at Stage 4 of the Archery World Cup here on Saturday.
Parneet Kaur, Aditi Gopuchand Swami and Jyothi Surekha Vennam won their World Championship gold medal rematch with Mexico to land the women’s gold, prevailing 234-233.
The Indian trio were a point behind going into the final end but shot 59 to overhaul Andrea Becerra, Ana Sofia Hernandez Jeon and Dafne Quintero, the official sources said.
The Mexicans were searching for their second World Cup gold of the season but were forced to settle for silver, just as they were in Berlin earlier this month.
A victorious Vennam said: “This is the second time we’ve won gold as a team, and we feel amazing.”
“Winning back-to-back medals for the country gives us a lot of confidence because we also have a major tournament – the Asian Games – coming up, so it is a big boost for us. It also motivates us to practice even harder.”
India’s high performance director, Sanjeeva Singh, was visibly emotional and added: “It’s very special for me because I brought compound to this level [in India].”
“It took me three years to convince everybody that we could do compound. So, for me, all my work is paying off."
India’s memorable day then continued in the compound men’s team gold medal match as Ojas Pravin Deotale, Prathamesh Samadhan Jawkar and Abhishek Verma surprised favourites USA.
There was nothing to separate the two countries heading into the final end, which began at 176-176.
It was then that Deotale, Jawkar and Verma peaked, combining for a perfect end of 60. USA’s trio of Kris Schaff, James Lutz and Sawyer Sullivan could only respond with a 56 to see India take top spot.
“Last year I also got a gold medal here, so I’m happy,” said Verma, referring to his compound mixed team triumph alongside Vennam in 2022.
“This is my fourth time receiving a gold medal in the men’s team and the team is pretty strong.”
“Now we can see that the whole of the world is getting better so you cannot really predict who will win. It’s just a margin, a single point game now.”
Lutz was left to rue an arrow malfunction which saw him score an 8 on the final end.
“I couldn't really see it,” he said.
“I was kind of rushed but I'm going to go back to practice range and look at it.”
“I mean, I shot an 8 and it felt really good. The shot broke fine, but I don't know. We're going to have to figure out.”
“I probably should have been paying a little bit more attention to my arrows. But when you're up there everything's just kind of a blur.”
Saturday’s results mean there have been eight different nations winning gold in as many events across the compound men’s and women’s team competitions across the Hyundai Archery World Cup season so far.
Schaff bounced back in the compound mixed team to take gold alongside Alexis Ruiz, the American pair holding off a strong Puerto Rican challenge from Paola Maria Ramirez Gonzalez and Jean Pizarro.
The pairs were level at 79-79 at the halfway stage but Schaff and Ruiz pulled away in the final two ends to secure a 158-156 victory, Ruiz adding World Cup gold to the World Championship triumph she secured alongside Sullivan in Berlin.
“At the end, we knew we had it,” Ruiz said.
“The nerve-wracking end was when we both had some liners and we didn't know what does total score was going to be going into the next end.
“So you're just kind of waiting there and making sure next end you’re going to do good shots.”
Schaff added: “Winning World Championships a couple weeks ago as a mixed team for US and then winning this one here for the US, it definitely has out a target on our back to be number one at the Pan-Am Games.”
Ramirez Gonzalez and Pizarro will also head to the Pan-Americans with confidence after securing their country’s first World Cup team medal.
Netherlands won compound mixed team bronze as Sanne de Laat and Mike Scholesser overcame Denmark’s Tanja Gellenthien and Mathias Fullerton in a shoot-off after the pairs were tied 157-157 after four ends. (UNI)
