Picture Credit: Twitter
Maharashtra’s Prathamesh Jawkar stormed into the history books as he clinched the silver medal at the Archery World Cup Final in Mexico. In a tense final, Jawkar was neck-and-neck against Denmark’s Mathias Fullerton but had to face defeat by a bare margin with the two players finishing the five-set thriller in a tie followed by a perfect 10 by both.
After the 19-year-old Indian archer dropped one point in the first round of their final match on Saturday, the Danish archer quickly pulled ahead. Having fallen down 89-90 at the halfway point, Jawkar evened up the score going into the final round by shooting 30 out of a possible 30 points.
However, on the predetermined last end, both archers scored identical scores of 29, forcing a shootoff. The Indian narrowly missed Fullerton's arrow in the tiebreaker, resulting in a tie. But Fullerton was adjudged the winner as his arrow was closer to the X.
The Maharashtra archer had earlier defeated Mike Schloesser by one point (150-149) in the semifinals thanks to a faultless 150 out of 150-point performance. The victory also prevented a hat-trick for the Dutchman in winning the World Cup Final. In four months, Jawkar has now defeated "Mr. Perfectionist" twice. Jawakar defeated the Dutch heavyweight at the Shanghai World Cup final in May by a score of 149-148.
In his impressive debut season, fourth-seeded Jawkar won an individual gold at the World Cup Stage 2 in Shanghai, a men's team gold at the World Cup Stage 4 in Paris, and a men's team bronze at the World Cup Stage 3 in Medellin. He entered the Archery World Cup Final as the fourth seed. He easily defeated Miguel Becerra of Mexico at Hermosillo to start his career, winning 149–141 before defeating Schloesser and Fullerton in the semi-final and final, respectively.
Here is all you need to know about Prathamesh Jawkar:
Age: 19 years
Date of Birth: March 23, 2004
Hails from: Buldana, Maharashtra
Achievements:
2022: Men’s team gold medal in the 41st NTPC Senior (M&W) National Archery Championship in Jammu
2022: Gold medal in Senior compound in the 2nd NTPC National Ranking Archery Tournament in Kharswan, Jharkhand
2022: Mixed team gold medal in the 42nd NTPC Junior (M & W) National Archery Championship in Panaji, Goa
2022: Gold medal in Compound men’s in the Sulaymaniyah Asia Cup leg 2 in Iraq
2023: Gold medal in Compound men’s in the Shanghai Hyundai Archery World Cup Stage 2 in China.
