Archery World Cup Final: Prathamesh Jawkar clinches silver in men’s compound event
September 11, 2023
India’s Prathamesh Jawkar won silver in the men’s individual compound archery event at the World Cup Final in Hermosillo, Mexico on Saturday night local time (Sunday morning IST).
In a tense final, Jawkar lost to Denmark’s Mathias Fullerton by millimetres in the shoot-off after both players shot 148 after five Ends.
Abhishek Verma missed out on a podium place after losing to Mike Schloesser 150-149 in the bronze medal match.
It was a disappointing day for Jyothi Sureka Vennam and Aditi Gopichand Swami as both exited at the quarter-final stage in the women’s compound event.
Silver for Jawkar
Fourth seed Jawkar came into the Archery World Cup Final on the back of a stunning rookie season which saw him win an individual gold at the World Cup Stage 2 in Shanghai, a men’s team gold at the World Cup Stage 4 in Paris and a men’s team bronze at the World Cup Stage 3 in Medellin.
He began his campaign in Hermosillo by comfortably beating Mexico’s Miguel Becerra 149-141. In the semi-final, the 20-year-old Indian faced four-time World Cup Finals gold medallist Mike ‘Mr Perfect’ Schloesser.
In a high quality semi-final, Schloesser dropped a point in the second End to give Jawkar the upper hand. The Indian was calm throughout, matching the Dutchman’s 30s with 30s of his own as he beat Schloesser 150-149 for the second time in his career.
Verma, on the other hand, had made it to the semi-final after beating the USA’s Sawyer Sullivan 10-9 in a shoot off after both shot scores of 146.
Verma faced Fullerton in the semi-final and both began with 30s in the first End. However, Verma dropped a point each in the three subsequent ends as Fullerton shot 30s. The Indian finally shot a 30 in the fifth and final end but Fullerton did not give an inch away as he clinched a spot in the final winning 150-147.
The final saw two 20-year-olds in Jawkar and Fullerton clash for a first World Cup Finals gold medal.
It was not the best of starts for Jawkar as he began the final with a 9 and he played catchup with Fullerton as the Dane shot 30s in the first three Ends. Fullerton finally dropped a point in the fourth end as Jawkar levelled the scores 119-119 in the fourth end.
There was still more drama to come as Jawkar shot a 9 with his first arrow in the fifth End only for Fullerton to repay the favour by shooting another 9. With the scores level at 148-148 after five Ends, the final was decided on shoot-off.
Both the 20-year-olds shot in the X circle but Fullerton’s arrow was just a bit closer to the bullseye than Jawkar’s as the Dane won gold.
Verma took on Schloesser in a bronze medal match featuring two experienced archers. In yet another high quality contest, neither archer dropped a point in the first four Eames. However, Verma began the fifth with a stray 9. Schloesser punished Verma by shooting yet another 30 to clinch bronze.
In the women’s compound event, Vennam lost to eventual champion Sara Lopez 149-144 in the quarter-final. Swami also exited at the quarter-final stage losing to eventual runner-up Tanja Gellenthien 10-9 in a shoot off after both finished with scores of 145.
