Rising Indian recurve archer Dhiraj began his campaign on a rousing note when he rallied from 0-2 to pull off an upset 28-29, 30-28, 30-28, 29-26 win over the World No. 2 Korean heavyweight in the men’s quarterfinals here on Sunday.
But the 22-year-old Army archer faltered against another Korean Lee Woo Seok as he went down 1-7 (28-28, 27-30, 28-30, 28-29) in the semifinal to be left to fight for the third-place playoff, where he was up against Medellin World Cup winner Mauro Nespoli.
The bronze medal contest went down to the wire with the Italian clinching the issue 6-5 (29-30, 27-27, 25-29, 27-26, 27-28) (10-9) in the shoot-off where Dhiraj dropped a point.
Jayanta Talukdar remains the only male recurve archer to have won a World Cup Final medal — bronze — 13 years ago in Edinburgh.
Dola Banerjee is the only Indian with a World Cup Final gold that came way back in Dubai 2007 in the women’s recurve section. In terms of medals, woman recurve archer Deepika Kumari is the most successful Indian, having won four silver medals at different World Cup Finals. The event is a year-ending world outdoor competition where a total of 32 archers, eight in each of the four championship categories, fight it out for the gold, silver and bronze medals.
Archers qualify for the tournament by winning one of the circuit’s four stages — in Antalya (Turkey), Shanghai (China), Medellin (Colombia) and Paris (France) — or by climbing high enough in the World Cup Ranking with consistent finishes across the season to make it as a points qualifier. One spot in each category is also awarded to the host nation.
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