India men’s compound team to fight for bronze at Archery WC

Wroclaw :Indian men’s compound team will now fight for a bronze medal finish at the Archery World Cup – Stage 3 after narrowly going down to the USA in the semifinals here on Friday.

India will face Italy, seeded third, in the bronze medal play-off match tomorrow.

The fourth seeded Indian trio of Abhishek Verma, Kawal Preet Singh and Rajat Chauhan gave the top ranked USA team a tough fight before bowing out 231-232.

The Indian side incidentally had a perfect finish to the fourth and final end, shooting the maximum (60) against 59 by Braden Gellenthien, Steve Anderson and Reo Wilde, but their poor scores of 56 each in the first and third ends meant they missed out on the final berth by a point.

Meanwhile, Abhishek Verma will look to earn a gold when he battles it out with Esmaeil Ebadi of Iran in the evening session.

However, India continued their dismal show in the recurve section as the second seeded women’s team of Deepika Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi and Rimil Buriuly made a last eight exit.

The trio, who recently earned India Olympic quota berths, surrendered to Italy 2-6 in a meek show earlier in the day.

The only hope in the recurve section is from the mixed pair of Mangal Singh Champia and Deepika, who will vie for a gold medal against Mexico on Sunday.

PTI