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The Indian men's compound archery team humbled France in a thrilling final to win the gold medal at the World Cup Stage-1 in Antalya, Turkey, on Saturday (April 23).
The men's team comprising of Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan and Aman Saini recovered from a 56-57, 113-116 deficit to clinch a scintillating 232-230 win against the French team of Jean Philippe Boulch, Quentin Baraer and Adrien Gontier to win their first gold medal of the season.
24-year-old Aman Saini, who bagged his first World Cup gold, said:
"Mentally, we were really strong today and we've been preparing for this event only and we have the Asian Games coming up this year, which is something we also want to do well at. The gold medal, that gives us a great confidence boost especially for the other world cup events, it will hopefully help us."
Meanwhile, Abhishek, along with his compound-mixed doubles partner Muskan Kirar, failed to attain a podium finish. The duo lost 156-157 to Croatia's Amanda Mlinaric and Domagoj Buden in the bronze medal clash.
Indian recurve mixed team in the fray for second gold medal at Archery World Cup Stage-1
India’s mixed team pair of Tarundeep Rai and Ridhi Phor will be in action against the 11th-seeded English team in the recurve mixed team gold medal archery match on Sunday (April 24).
Indian archers Tarundeep Rai and Ridhi Phor thrashed Spain 5-3 in the semi-finals of the marquee event to make it to the finals.
The Indian mixed team, seeded fifth, showed great composure to fetch a 5-3 (38-35, 36-39, 38-38, 36-35) victory against their Spanish opponents.
Earlier, Indian archer Tarundeep Rai secured a spot in the Indian archery squad for the 2022 Asian Games spot in the ongoing second phase of the selection trials in Sonipat, Haryana. The Asian Games are slated to take place in Hangzhou, China, from September 10-25, 2022.
Rai, who bagged a historic silver medal at the 2010 Asian Games, was the first archer to book a berth, finishing on top in the men's recurve trial.
Also read: Indian archer Jyothi Surekha Vennam misses out on Asian Games berth
