YANKTON: Ace Indian compound archer Abhishek Verma endured a rare medal-less outing at World Cup Final as he went down to eventual silver-medallist Braden Gellenthien of the USA in his first-round match here.
After a quiet start, the American world number four fired in five perfect 10s in a row, leaving the Indian to play a catch-up game before losing by four points (142-146).
The 2014 Asian Games gold-medallist Verma, who qualified after winning the third stage of the World Cup in Paris, had won a silver in the 2015 edition.
In his previous World Cup Final appearance in 2018, Verma had clinched an individual bronze and a silver with Jyothi Surekha Vennam in mixed pair event.
All eyes would now be on the star couple of Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das..
World No. 2 Deepika has four silver medals and a bronze from seven appearances at the World Cup Final, while for Das, this will be his debut at the season-ending competition.
Dola Banerjee is the only Indian to have won a gold medal at the World Cup Final in 2007.
