Abhishek Verma strikes gold, adds to India's WC tally

Abhishek Verma added a gold medal to India's tally by clinching the top prize in the men's compound individual final at the World Cup Stage 3 in Medellin, Colombia.

The 33-year-old Abhishek, winner of the compound team gold and an individual silver at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, defeated James Lutz of USA 148-146 on Saturday.

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 had 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 will fight for the bronze with Chinese Taipei.