Shanghai: Indian archer Sahil Jadhav clinched a bronze medal in the men’s compound event at the second stage of the Archery World Cup in Shanghai, marking his first-ever medal at the prestigious World Cup level.
The 25-year-old archer from Maharashtra defeated Denmark’s Martin Damsbo 147-144 in the bronze medal playoff to secure India’s first medal of the tournament. With this result, India concluded its campaign in the compound category on a positive note.
Despite being considered a strong contender in compound team events, Indian teams faced disappointing exits in the early rounds of the competition and failed to reach the podium. India will now turn its attention to the recurve events on the final day of the tournament, where the women’s team will compete for the gold medal.
Indian archer Simranjeet Kaur is also set to begin her semifinal campaign and stands just one victory away from securing her maiden World Cup medal.
In the bronze medal clash, Sahil Jadhav trailed by one point after the opening set as the experienced 40-year-old Damsbo started strongly with three perfect 10s. However, the Indian archer responded brilliantly in the second set with a perfect score of 30, while the Danish competitor managed 27, giving Jadhav a 59-57 lead.
From there, the Indian maintained complete control and dropped only two points in his final nine arrows to seal a memorable three-point victory.
During his impressive campaign, Jadhav defeated fellow Indian Abhishek Verma in the opening round, Germany’s Ruven Fluss in the pre-quarterfinals, and Austria’s 2022 world champion Nico Wiener in a shoot-off during the quarterfinals. However, his run to the final was halted in the semifinals, where he suffered a narrow one-point defeat against reigning world champion Nicolas Girard of France.
