Amravati: Sahil Jadhav, 25-year-old archer from Satara, clinched his first World Cup medal on Saturday. Jadhav won a bronze in compound individual category, India’s first medal at World Cup Archery Stage 2 in Shanghai. Jadhav tasted success in his second World Cup appearance after making debut at Pueblo in Mexico last month. His bronze medal came as a silver lining amid a lacklustre showing by India’s compound archers at Shanghai. Indian men, women and mixed teams faced early exit in the event. Jadhav defeated Denmark’s veteran Martin Damsbo in the bronze medal match by shooting two perfect 30s while dropping only 3 points total across 15 arrows. The Satara archer led the first end 30-29 and maintained his one-point lead in the second end, where both archers shot 29 each. The third end saw Jadhav shoot a perfect 30 as against Damsbo’s 29 for an overall 2-point lead (89-87). Jadhav shot 29 to Damsbo’s 28 in the fourth end to increase his lead by three points — which he maintained in the fifth end, where both archers shot 29 each — to clinch the bronze 147-144.“It’s a big win. Jadhav played extremely well to win his first medal,” said Pravin Sawant, his coach at Drushti Archery Academy in Satara.Earlier in the day, Jadhav went down fighting to France’s Nicolas Gerard in the semifinal. Jadhav, the 8th seed, matched his rival arrow for arrow until the last end before going down by just one point, losing 146-147.The individual gold was clinched by Mexican Sebastian García Flores who beat Girard in a shoot-off (9*-9) after both were tied at 145. Lisell Jaamta of Estonia won the women’s compound individual gold by defeating Mexico’s Andrea Becerra 145-144. American Alexia Ruiz claimed bronze beating Dafne Quintero of Mexico 148-145.In the team finals, Turkiye men and women claimed gold after beating USA in both finals. USA claimed the mixed team gold beating Turkiye 157-154.On Sunday, Indian women’s recurve team takes on hosts China in the final. Also, Simaranjeet Kaur will face-off against World no.1 Kang Cheyoung of Korea in the recurve individual semifinal.
