HERMOSILLO (MEXICO), Sep 10: Indian compound archer Prathamesh Jawkar’s dream run in his maiden ‘World Cup Final’ ended with a silver medal after he lost to Denmark’s Mathias Fullerton by the narrowest of margins in an intense shoot-off finish.
Shanghai World Cup winner Jawkar, who stunned the world No 1 and reigning champion Mike Schloesser for a second time in four months to storm into the final, lost 148-148 (10-10*) to Fullerton, who was adjudged the winner by virtue of his arrow being closer to the centre.
The Denmark archer took an early lead after the Indian 20-year-old dropped one point in the opening round of their final clash, here late on Saturday.
Trailing 89-90 at the midway mark, Jawkar brought the final on an even keel when he shot 30 points out of a possible 30 to make it 119-all going into the last round. But in the designated final end, both the archers shot identical scores of 29 each to take it to shootoff. The tiebreaker also saw a stalemate as the Indian missed Fullerton’s arrow by narrowest of margins.
In the semifinal, the Maharashtra archer dished out a flawless shooting of 150 out of a possible 150 points to pip Schloesser by one point (150-149).
The win also denied the Dutchman a hattrick of World Cup Final titles. Schloesser is a winner of four ‘World Cup Final’ (2016, 2019, 2021 and 2022). It was Jawkar’s second win over the ‘Mr Perfectionist’ in four months. At the final of the Shanghai World Cup in May, Jawakar had prevailed over the Dutch heavyweight 149-148.
Schloesser, however, managed to bring his A-game in the bronze medal playoff, when he denied India a second medal defeating veteran Abhishek Verma 150-149. Verma was eyeing a second World Cup Final bronze, when he made his way through to the third-place playoff defeating Sawyer Sullivan of the USA 146-146 (10-9) in the quarterfinals. In the semifinal, Verma lost to eventual champion Fullerton 147-150.
Jawkar started off in an ominous fashion when he dropped just one point to eliminate host nation representative Miguel Becerra 149-141 in the quarterfinal. It’s only in the penultimate round that the Indian missed the centre once from 15 arrows in an otherwise perfect display. The win set up Jawkar’s semifinal clash against the Dutch superstar Schloesser for a second time in four months. (PTI)
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