Jeanine Van Kradenburg: India's compound archery mixed team of Madhura Dhamangaonkar and veteran Abhishek Verma topped the qualification to be seeded first at the World Games here on Thursday.
Madhura, who was the winner of the World Cup stage in Shanghai earlier this year, was leading the women's field for much of the afternoon but fell away in the last couple of ends to be placed third in the women's individual section, while Abhishek was placed fifth in the men's individual.
However, Madhura's third-place score of 705, along with Abhishek's fifth place (710), puts India in pole position (with 1415) of the eight teams in the mixed team competition on Friday, where they will face a young Korean pair, Moon Yeeun and Lee Eunho, in the first round.
Another Indian, Parneet Kaur, placed 12th in the individual qualification and will face South African archer Jeanine Van Kradenburg, who finished 21st in the qualification.
In the men's individual, Rishabh Yadav (707) and Rakesh Kumar (699) placed 10th and 19th, respectively. Rishabh will begin the main round against America's Riku Van Tonder, while Rakesh will kickstart against Batuhan Akcaoglu of Turkey.
Elsewhere, Mike Schloesser and Andrea Becerra have seeded at the top of the men‘s and women‘s fields.
Schloesser, who is looking for his first World Games title and after an up-and-down season during which he became a father for the first time, scored 715 with 43x. Despite winning every major title available – some of them several times – this is Schloesser's third attempt at an elusive World Games gold medal. Last time out, at Birmingham 2022, he was beaten by Abhishek Verma in the quarterfinals.
Elsewhere, Mike Schloesser and Andrea Becerra have seeded at the top of the men‘s and women‘s fields.
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However, defending champion Ella Gibson did not have a good session, finishing in ninth spot with 699. The placing means she will have to shoot an extra match tomorrow against Namibia's Elisabeth Taljaard.