Byte: Ojas Deotale, Abhishek Verma Hangzhou:Indian archer Ojas Deotale clinched gold defeating compatriot Abhishek Verma 148-147 in the gold medal match, who had to settle on silver in the men's individual compound event at the Asian Games here on Saturday.
In the final, Deotale defeated his experienced compatriot Verma 149-147 at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre. This was his third gold medal in this edition of the Asian Games, making him the joint most successful Indian sportsperson in this Asian Games. Deotale had earlier won gold medals in Compound Men's Team and Compound Mixed Team competitions.
Shooting with precision and determination, Deotale missed the 10-point circle only once in the center of the target only once as he compiled a score of 140 out of a possible 150 in the final in which each archer shoots five rounds (called End in archery) with three arrows in each round.
Deotale, the 21-year-old from Nagpur in Maharashtra who won the World Championship in Berlin earlier this year, shot his only score of nine in the final on in the second arrow of the fourth round. In contrast, Verma shot a nine off the third arrow in the second round and then got an eight on the second arrow of the third, thus pushing him three points behind Deotale.
Though, he made up one point by winning the fourth round 30-29, it was not enough to overtake Deotale as he shot a perfect 30 in the fifth and final round.
With these medals, India has now aggregated 9 medals, including 6 golds in compound archery. This is the best performance registered by India in the compound archery event. "With the medals in archery and other events on Saturday, India achieved its quest of aggregating 100 medals this Asiad. (With agency inputs)
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