India’s Madhura Dhamangaonkar and Abhishek Verma bowed out in the quarter-finals of the mixed team compound archery event at the World Games 2025 in Chengdu, the People’s Republic of China, on Friday.
The Indian duo lost to the Republic of Korea’s Moon Yeeun and Lee Eun Ho by a 154-151 scoreline to crash out of the event, which will also feature at LA 2028 where compound archery will make its Olympic debut.
Moon Yeeun recently won the women’s compound individual gold medal at the World University Games in Germany.
After a close opening end which saw the Indians trail 38-37, the South Koreans opened up a four-point lead in the second with a perfect 40 against another 37 from the Indian duo.
The Indian archers tried hard to reduce the four-point deficit in the final two rounds but couldn’t succeed.
Earlier, Madhura Dhamangaonkar and Abhishek Verma had earned top seeding for the mixed team event after topping the qualification with a combined score of 1415. The Korean team, with 1392, were seeded eighth.
Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam had won the mixed team compound archery bronze medal at the last edition of the World Games held in Birmingham back in 2022.
Meanwhile, four of the five Indian archers in action at the 12th World Games made it to the individual quarter-finals and will be in medal contention on the final day of compound archery competitions on Friday.
Two-time individual Asian Games silver medal winner Abhishek Verma was handed a bye in the first round of the men’s compound draw and beat Puerto Rico’s Jean Pizarro 149-143 in the second to make the top eight.
Rishabh Yadav beat Riku Van Tonder of New Zealand and Julio Barillas of Guatemala to seal his entry in the men’s quarters. Rakesh Kumar, though, bowed out after losing 147-146 to Batuhan Akcaoglu of Turkiye.
Meanwhile, Parneet Kaur accounted for South Africa’s Jeanine Van Kradenburg and Mexican fifth seed Mariana Bernal Sanchez to secure her entry in the women’s compound individual quarters.
Madhura Dhamangaonkar, who won the women’s individual gold medal at the Shanghai leg of the 2025 Archery World Cup, got an opening-round bye before defeating Geesa Bybordy of the Islamic Republic of Iran comfortably in the round of 16.
India have sent a 17-member contingent to the World Games 2025 in Chengdu. Besides archery, Indian athletes will also compete in medal events in billiards, racquetball, roller sports and wushu.
