India secured four medals, one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals in the men’s recurve team event at the archery World Cup stage one at Auburndale in the USA on Sunday night. The trio of Dheeraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Rai and Atanu Das went down 1-5 to China in the final. This is India’s third medal of the season-opening event, with an eye on a fourth one as Dheeraj remains in contention in the men’s recurve individual event. This was a stellar start for India, which has secured a gold medal in the compound mixed team event and a bronze in the compound men’s team in the Archery World Cup in the past.
Dheeraj’s Performance
The 23-year-old army archer Dheeraj Bomma Devara won a bronze in the individual recurve category. He was also part of India’s trial that settled for silver after defeating China. In the bronze medal match, Dheeraj and Midiel tied the first set at 28-28. In the second set, the score edged ahead at 29-28, where Dheeraj could manage to take a 3-1 lead. The third set was again deadlocked at 29-29, putting Dheeraj under pressure. The rising archery star then responded with a brilliant fourth set, hitting two 10s to get a score of 29-28. In the concluding set, Dheeraj performed under pressure and yet secured three perfect tens to seal a bronze for himself.
The World Archery Cup, organised by World Archery, is one of the world’s most competitive contests in archery. Each archer completes four stages in four countries, and the best eight archers of eight categories advance to the end contest in the final Archery World Cup match. These matches started in 2006 with the intent of making archery more popular and attractive to spectators.
