Rishabh Yadav bags bronze in men's Compound Archery at World Games

Chengdu [China], August 9 (ANI): Archer Rishabh Yadav secured India's first medal at the ongoing World Games 2025 as he won a bronze medal in the men's individual compound archery event on Saturday.
Pitted against Abhishek Verma in an all-Indian bronze medal match, Rishabh Yadav defeated his countryman 149-147 to land on the podium, as per Olympics.com.
After a tense opening end that saw Rishabh Yadav edge Abhishek Verma 30-29, the pair traded 29s in the second before firing flawless 30s in the third.
Rishabh Yadav then extended his lead to two points by edging the fourth end 30-29 before consolidating his advantage in the fifth after both archers managed perfect 30s.
Earlier, Abhishek Verma had finished fifth in qualification with a total of 710, while Rishabh Yadav was 10th with a total of 707.
The Netherlands' Mike Schloesser won gold and the USA's Curtis Broadnax settled for silver after the Dutchman won the final 150-148.
Rishabh Yadav defeated Riku Van Tonder of New Zealand and Julio Barillas of Guatemala to progress to the men's quarter-finals, where he overcame Yagiz Sezgin of Turkiye 147-145.
In the semi-final, Rishabh Yadav went down 147-145 against Broadnax.
Two-time individual Asian Games silver medal winner Abhishek Verma was handed a bye in the first round and beat Puerto Rico's Jean Pizarro 149-143 in the second.
He then defeated America's Sawyer Sullivan 148-145 in the quarter-finals before losing by the same scoreline to eventual champion Schloesser in the semis.
Meanwhile, both Parneet Kaur and Madhura Dhamangaonkar failed to make it beyond the quarter-finals of the women's individual compound event.
Madhura Dhamangaonkar and Abhishek Verma also bowed out in the quarter-finals of the mixed team compound archery event on Friday.
This was India's first individual archery medal at the World Games and the second overall in the sport.
At the last edition held in Birmingham three years back, Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam had clinched a bronze medal in the mixed team compound event.
India has sent a 17-member contingent to the World Games 2025 in Chengdu. Besides archery, Indian athletes will also compete in medal events in billiards, racquetball, roller sports and wushu. (ANI)