Abhishek Verma gave India a perfect Independence Day gift by winning the gold medal in the Archery World Cup Stage 3. He defeated Esmaeil Ebadi of Iran 148-145. The Asian Games silver medallist thus avenged his defeat to Ebadi at the Incheon 2014 in style. India’s recurve mixed pair of Deepika Kumari and Mangal Singh Champia will look to earn the country a second gold when they face their opponents from Mexico.
Interesting Facts About Archery
- Toxophilus, the first book on the archery sport was written by Roger Ascham. It was in the year 1545.
- In 2340BC, the Babylonians first used arrows as well as bows for warfare activities.
- In 1900 Olympic Games, the archers used live pigeons as their targets.
- Archery is the national sport of Bhutan.
- A conventional form of archery namely Kyudo is considered to be an exclusive art form in Japan.
- Five-time US Olympic archery champion Khatuna Lorig trained Jennifer Lawrence for the Hunger Games films.
- Archery was the only sport that women could take part in, when they were first allowed to compete in the 1904 St. Louis Olympics.
- Arrows in the Olympic (recurve) bow events can travel in excess of 150 miles per hour.
Test Your Knowledge
Which country has won most gold medals in Olympic archery?
The venue for Archery World Cup 2015 is
