India clinch compound mixed team gold in Paris

The Indian duo trounced host France 152-149 in the gold medal contest.

This was the second successive medal compound mixed at the world cup. In the stage 2 in Gwangju last month, a team of Abhishek and Avneet Kaur clinched the bronze medal.

"It feels great as this is the second consecutive mixed team medal for India. After this win maybe Indian team will become no 1 and we are very excited about it," said Abhishek after the win.

Jyothi, who missed the first two stages, said: "Its been a long time since I got on to the international arena, I thought to perform well and give my best. I am happy that we won the gold today."

India had a great start with four arrows into the 10s compared to France's one and held three -point lead, 40-37.

France then tried to bounce back with two 10s and as many as 9 in the second end. Abhishek's 8 in the third arrow reduced the lead to just one point. The third end witnessed a close contest, both the teams shot 39 each and the Indians succeeded in maintaining slender one-point advantage.

In the final end, the Indian duo was very much in control with perfect 10 start followed by three 9s compared to France's four 9s and sealed the massive win on French soil.

Enroute to final, third seeded Indian team received the first round bye and started off by eliminating Puerto Rico in the second round. In the quarterfinal they ousted El Salvador in a shoot-off before trouncing Estonia 156-151 in the semifinal.

Moreover, this was Abhishek's third gold medal in a row, having won compound men’s team gold at the world cup stage 1 and 2 in Antalya and Gwangju respectively.

(With UNI inputs)