Young Indian archer Fuge misses maiden World Cup medal

Rising star Prathamesh Fuge pushed defending champion Mathias Fullerton in the men's compound semi-final at the Archery World Cup Final before missing out on medal after losing a tense shoot-off.

In a thrilling end-to-end contest in Tlaxcala, Mexico, on Saturday, both archers shot perfect 10s throughout all five regulation ends, totaling 15 arrows each, without dropping a single point.

The match was deadlocked 150 all, forcing a nail-biting shoot-off to decide the winner.

The shoot-off resulted in another 10-all tie, but the Danish archer edged out the Indian by mere millimeters, with his arrow landing closer to the centre.

A win would have confirmed a maiden medal for Fuge who was then left to fight the bronze play-off and lost to world champion Mike Schloesser 146-150.

Fullerton eventually settled for a silver after losing to American James 'Jimmy' Lutz 149-150.

Fuge earlier got the better of fellow Indian Priyansh 147-146 in the quarter-final.

Two Indians made the cut to the eight-member draw in the World Cup Final.

Multiple World Cup medalist Jyothi Surekha Vennam, who was the lone Indian qualifier in the women's compound section, returned empty-handed from her second successive appearance.

Like last year, Jyothi's campaign ended in the quarters, going down to Meeri-Marita Paas of Estonia 145-147.

Deepika Kumari and Dhiraj Bommadevara will lead India's campaign in the recurve categories later on Sunday.