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India claims compound team double at Paris World Cup

19 August 2023

Paris, France

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India claimed a compound team double with men’s and women’s gold at the fourth stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Paris, as the finals weekend started on the Esplanade des Invalides.

Parneet Kaur, Aditi Gopuchand Swami and Jyothi Surekha Vennam won their World Championship gold medal rematch with Mexico to land the women’s gold, prevailing 234-233.

“This is the second time we’ve won gold as a team, and we feel amazing,” a victorious Vennam said.

“Winning back-to-back medals for the country gives us a lot of confidence because we also have a major tournament – the Asian Games – coming up, so it is a big boost for us. It also motivates us to practice even harder.”

India’s memorable day then continued in the men’s team gold medal match as Ojas Pravin Deotale, Prathamesh Samadhan Jawkar and Abhishek Verma surprised the favourite trio of USA.

“It’s very special for me because I brought compound to this level [in India],” and emotional India’s high performance director Sanjeeva Singh added.

“It took me three years to convince everybody that we could do compound. So, for me, all my work is paying off.”

Compound women’s team podium at Paris 2023 Hyundai Archery World Cup.

The Indian women were a point behind going into the final end but shot 59 to overhaul Andrea Becerra, Ana Sofia Hernandez Jeon and Dafne Quintero.

The Mexicans were searching for their second World Cup gold of the season but were forced to settle for silver, just as they were in Berlin earlier this month.

There was nothing to separate the two finalist countries in the men’s team gold medal match heading into the last end, which began at 176-176.

It was then that the Indians peaked, combining for a perfect end of 60. USA could only respond with a 56, following an arrow malfunction for Lutz which saw him score an eight, to see India take top spot.

“I couldn’t really see it,” said Lutz. “I probably should have been paying a little bit more attention to my arrows, but when you’re up there everything’s just kind of a blur.”

It is Verma’s fourth win in the men’s team event at a World Cup and the third gold in a row in the French capital after mixed team triumph alongside Vennam in 2022 and an individual stage win in 2021. He has now seven World Cup golds overall.

“Last year I also got a gold medal here, so I’m happy,” said Verma. “The team is pretty strong.”

“Now we can see that the whole of the world is [getting better] so you cannot really predict who will win. It’s just a margin, a single point game now.”

Kris Schaff and Alexis Ruiz won compound mixed team gold in Paris.

Schaff bounced back in the compound mixed team to take gold alongside Alexis Ruiz, the American pair holding off a strong Puerto Rican challenge from Paola Ramirez and Jean Pizarro.

The pairs were level at 79-79 at the halfway stage but Schaff and Ruiz pulled away in the final two ends to secure a 158-156 victory, Ruiz adding World Cup gold to the World Championship triumph she secured alongside Sullivan in Berlin.

“At the end, we knew we had it,” Ruiz said. “The nerve-wracking end was when we both had some liners and we didn’t know what the total score was going to be going into the next end.”

“Winning the World Championships a couple weeks ago as a mixed team for US and then winning this one here again, it definitely has out a target on our back to be number one at the Pan Am Games,” added Schaff.

Ramirez and Pizarro will also head to their continental games in Chile in November with confidence after securing their country’s first World Cup team medal.

Netherlands won compound mixed team bronze as Sanne de Laat and Mike Scholesser overcame Denmark’s Tanja Gellenthien and Mathias Fullerton in a shoot-off after the pairs were tied 157-157 after four ends.

Action in Paris continues on Saturday afternoon with compound individual finals.