Asian Games archery: Verma falters in individual final after historic team gold

Incheon: Indian archers scripted history in the Asian Games today when the compound men’s team shot its way to a maiden gold medal by shocking favourites South Korea before squad member Abhishek Verma picked up the individual silver even as women added two bronze to the tally. The women’s trio had set the tone in the morning by clinching the compound team bronze by defeating Iran in the play-off for the third position at the Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field. Later, Trisha Deb bagged a bronze in the individual event. [caption id=“attachment_1732457” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Abhishek Verma. Reuters[/caption] India had won one silver and three bronze medals from the bow and arrow discipline in past Games and today’s gold lifted the sagging spirits of the huge contingent which had endured a gold drought after pistol shooter Jitu Rai’s top finish six days ago. India defied odds to shock world archery powerhouse Korea 227-225 in the gold medal clash. The men’s trio of Rajat Chauhan, Sandeep Kumar and Abhishek Verma worked wonderfully well in unison to lead their formidable hosts – the world silver medalists – right through the 24-arrow finals to emerge triumphant by two points (227-225) in the non-Olympic Compound event which has made its debut here. This was the second medal of the day from the venue, and came just one hour after the young Indian women’s trio of Trisha Deb, Purvasha Shende and Jyothi Surekha Vennam clinched the bronze medal by winning the play-off against Iran 224-217. Later Verma fought gamely in the gold medal match against Iran’s Ebadi Esmaeil 141-145. Two 8s by the Indian in his first nine arrows led to his downfall as the Iranian nosed ahead and kept the lead to win the gold. The superb display of the compound team made up to some extent the disappointing show put up by the recurve team of better known archers so far at these Games. “We have been noticing India’s position on the medals table every day and were determined to win the gold today. We are delighted to have done it,” said Jaipur-based Chauhan who claimed he had failed in 12th standard exams on four occasions. Coach Ranjan Singh, from Manipur, hailed the preparations of the team ahead of the Games as one of the reasons for the result. “We went to Salt Lake City in the USA and trained under top coach De Wilde for 15 days. Then we came and trained in South Korea in different weather conditions at Gwangju which is four hours’ drive from here for a month before reaching here for the Games,” said Singh, a former junior national champion. Verma, on the other hand, said, “I knew how to perform under pressure after losing in the World Cup final. We are all delighted to win the gold. We were not overawed by our opponents.” “We have been preparing for this for two years. This is our biggest ever victory,” said Haryana-born Army Sports Institute (Pune) naik subedar Sandeep Kumar who took up the sport only after joining the services ranks three years. The Indians led the Koreans right through the gold medal contest. The wind direction kept shifting but the trio held its composure to emerge on top. The Indians led 55-54 after the first set of six arrows from each team, were ahead 113-111 after the second set, held on to the lead by two points (171-169) before a horrid 7 from one of the Korean team members in the fourth and final set virtually sealed the gold in their favour. After the first set of three arrows had been fired by both the teams in the last set, India were ahead by three points (199-196) thanks to the shocking 7 shot by the Koreans. Though the host team did slightly better than India (29-28) in the last round of three arrows, the lead was too big to bridge. In what came as surprise, Trisha won a bronze in the compound women’s individual event. Trisha won 138-134 against Chinese Taipei’s Huang I Jou. The Indian was lucky to finish on the podium given that she was trailing her rival till the last arrow. After scoring perfect 10s in the fourth round, Jou fumbled in the fifth and final round as she managed to garner just 18 points against the Indian’s 25. This completely turned the contest in the closing stages and the Indian girl walked away with a third-place finish. PTI