Abhishek Verma wins compound individual gold

PARIS: Star compound archer Abhishek Verma stunned American heavyweight Kris Schaff in a shoot-off to bag a gold medal at the Archery World Cup Stage 3 in Paris on Saturday.

In a neck-and-neck final clash, the duo dropped just two points each to be locked 148-all after the regulation five ends.

The world number five Schaff started the shoot-off with a nine and Verma, showing nerve of steel, clinched the contest in style with a perfect 10 to open India's account.

It was Verma's second individual World Cup gold medal. The 32-year-old Indian last won an individual medal in 2015 at World Cup Stage 3 in Wroclaw.

"That's archery, it's all about hits and misses. My heart beat went up so I just calmed myself down and kept my focus on the next arrow," Verma said about the intense finish.

Earlier, Verma defeated Anton Bulaev of Russia 146-138 to make his first World Cup final since Salt Lake City 2018 where he had finished with a silver. Agencies

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