At the World Cup Stage 3 in Medellin-Colombo, Abhishek Verma took home the top prize in the men’s compound individual final, giving India yet another gold medal. The 33-year-old Abhishek, who won a compound team gold medal and an individual silver at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, defeated James Lutz of the USA on Saturday.
Mike Schloesser of the Netherlands, the top seed and current world No. 1, was startled by Abhishek, a repeat World Cup champion who missed the first two World Cup stages, 148-148 (10*-10) in an exciting shootoff to progress to the solo semifinal. Verma, the eighth-seeded player, proceeded to the title game after beating the Brazilian Luccas Abreu in the round of 16.
Three individual World Cup gold medals have now been earned by Abhishek, his first since the Paris round of the 2021 competition. He has won his first individual World Cup gold medal at Wroclaw, Poland, in 2015. He has two silver and three bronze medals from the World Cup’s individual competition.</p> <p>The Indian contingent, which already has one gold and three bronze medals, will fight for the bronze in the recurve mixed team event later on Sunday.The team defeated France and the Netherlands 6-0 to progress to the semifinals but lost to Korea 5-3. They will now play for the bronze medal with Chinese Taipei.
