Germany, 27 July (Sports Desk)
Sahil Rajesh Jadhav clinched India’s second gold medal at the FISU World University Games 2025, triumphing in the men’s individual compound archery event at Rhine-Ruhr, Germany, on Saturday. Jadhav delivered a stellar performance, hitting 14 perfect 10s and losing just one point with his final arrow to edge out Great Britain’s Ajay Scott 149-148 in a thrilling gold medal match.
Jadhav advanced to the final after a tense semi-final shoot-off against fellow Indian Kushal Dalal, who ended in a 148-148 tie before Jadhav prevailed. However, Dalal missed out on a podium finish, losing the bronze medal match 150-148 to Poland’s Przemysław Konecki.
In the women’s individual compound category, Parneet Kaur earned a silver medal following a narrow 147-146 defeat to South Korea’s Moon Yeeun in the final. Parneet started strongly, taking a two-point lead over the third-seeded Moon Yeeun, but faltered in the third end, dropping two points. Moon responded with a flawless 30-point round to level the score and sealed the victory with three consecutive 10s in the fourth end, gaining a one-point advantage. Despite needing a perfect final end, Parneet scored 29, but Moon matched her effort to claim gold.
Jadhav and Kaur’s medals boosted India’s archery tally to five at the Games, following earlier successes in the mixed team gold, men’s team silver, and women’s team bronze in compound events. Compound archery is slated to debut at the LA 2028 Olympics, with only the mixed team event as a medal category.
India’s overall medal count at the World University Games now stands at seven, with additional bronzes in the badminton mixed team event and women’s singles tennis. The 32nd edition of the biennial event, held from July 16 to 27 across six German cities, features around 300 Indian athletes.
India’s finest performance at the Games came in Chengdu 2023, where they secured seventh place overall with 26 medals, including 11 golds—eight from shooting. However, shooting is excluded from the 2025 edition.
