Archery World Cup 2023 Medellin: Abhishek Verma stuns former world champion James Lutz to win gold medal

India’s compound archer Abhishek Verma bagged the gold medal at the Archery World Cup 2023 stage 3 in Medellin, Colombia on Saturday.

The 33-year-old Abhishek Verma, competing in his first World Cup of the year, defeated the 2019 world champion James Lutz of the USA 148-146 in a close final.

“I’m very happy, I was remembering the good old days,” said Verma, a silver medallist at the 2014 Asian Games archery. “It doesn’t matter who your opponent is, I just wanted to focus on my shooting and give my best.”

It was Abhishek Verma’s third individual gold medal in the Archery World Cup and first since winning the top prize in Paris two years ago.

Earlier, Abhishek Verma, seeded eighth, got the better of world No. 1 and top-seed Mike Schloesser of the Netherlands in a shoot-off after scores were tied 148-148 in the quarter-finals. He then beat Luccas Abreu of Brazil 148-143 in the semis to set up the final against No. 2 seed James Lutz.

Abhishek Verma will now join Prathamesh Jawkar at September's finals in Mexico.

So far, India have won one gold and three bronze medals at the Archery World Cup 2023 stage 3 in Medellin. 

The Indian men’s compound team of Abhishek Verma, Ojas Pravin Deotale, Prathamesh Jawkar and the Indian women’s compound team comprising Aditi Swami, Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur won bronze medals on Wednesday.

The men’s recurve team of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Mrinal Chauhan and Tushar Shelke clinched a bronze medal on Thursday.

India’s mixed recurve team of Bhajan Kaur and Tushar Shelke will fight for bronze against Chinese Taipei on Sunday.

The Archery World Cup 2023 stage 3 in Medellin, Colombia will conclude on Monday with individual recurve archery men’s and women’s finals. No Indian recurve archer made it past the quarter-final stage.