India's men archery team, comprising Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar earned the gold medal in the men’s recurve team championship at the World Cup archery (Stage 1) on Sunday (5th April) at Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. In the final the trio defeated Great Britain by 221-215 points.

 

Earlier, on Saturday (4th April) the top seeded Indians had outplayed Turkey by 222-203 points in the quarterfinals. They also overcame a strong U.S. side by 219-215 points in the semifinals. The U.S. took the bronze medal defeating Mexico 222-220.

 

Meanwhile, the women’s team comprising Jhano Hansdah, Bheigyabati Chanu and Manjudha Soy defeated Venezuela 219-208 in the bronze medal play-off. Earlier, the Indian women beat Colombia 207-200 in the quarterfinals. But they lost to the United States 220-225 in the semifinals.

 

So far in the World Cup archery competition India had won gold and silver medal through Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh by occupying top two positions in the FITA round recurve qualification. Besides this, in the women’s individual recurve section Dola Banerjee and Reena Kumari were in line for a bronze medal.