Nagpur:Madhura Dhamangaonkar spearheaded India’s medal success with three podium finishes in the Shanghai Archery World Cup Stage 2 on Saturday. India’s compound archers achieved their highest medal count, with Madhura, from Amravati in Maharashtara, securing individual women’s gold, women’s team silver and mixed team bronze. Indian archers dominated the penultimate day, collecting five of the 15 medals on offer, while Turkiye and Mexico followed with three and two medals respectively.While Madhura won her career’s first international gold medal,veteran Abhishek Verma and Rishabh Yadav won a couple of medals as the compound archers concluded the event with two gold, a silver, and two bronze medals.The day began with disappointment as the women’s team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Madhura and Chikitha Taniparthi fell to Mexico 222234 in the final. The Indian men’s team of Abhishek Verma, Rishabh Yadav and Ojas Deotale, however, outplayed Mexico 232-228 in the title clash. India’s first gold in Shanghai was followed by the mixed team bronze medal when the duo of Madhura and Verma prevailed over Malaysia 144-142.India’s hat-trick of morning medals set the stage for young Madhura’s afternoon show. On her return to the Indian team after three years, the 24-year-old delivered a stellar performance with a careerbest 708 points in the qualification round, thereafter reaching the semifinals.Facing Turkiye’s world No.13 Hazal Burun in the semifinal, Madhura started strongly and took an early four-point lead (60-56) with back-to-back perfect scores of 30. The Amravati girl, who practises under Pravin Sawant at Satara’s Drushti Archery Academy, finished well to surprise the two-time World Cup medallist 143-141 to set her individual women’s title clash with USA’s Carson Krahe.Who’s that IPL player?In the final, Madhura rallied from 81-85 down in the third end to bring parity at 110 in the fourth set and produced her second successive 29s in the final round to get the better of Krahe 139-138 for her maiden international gold.Madhura was elated with her performance and said, “I took this as a challenge. My intention was to take the bow and hit a 10 with confidence. I have been working on my mental strength and my shooting skills, and that’s the reason I could perform better. Happy to start the year on a positive note and can say this is the big turning point of my career.”Much like Madhura, Haryana’s Rishabh Yadav clinched his maiden World Cup medal when the 22-yearold registered a thrilling shoot-off win over South Korea’s Kim Jongho in the men’s individual bronze play-off. Despite losing his semifinal contest to World No. 1 and eventual champion Mike Schloesser of Netherlands 143-149, Yadav remained positive during his bronze medal match.On Sunday, India will be in the hunt for two more medals. Recurve archers Parth Salunkhe and Deepika Kumari will fight it out in the semis.
