You’d be forgiven if you reckoned that this hasn’t been the happiest Independence Day for Indian sport. The cricket team’s incredible achievement of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in Galle. Saina’s spirited efforts in an ultimately losing cause at the Badminton World Federation Championships finals.

But don’t go mope in despair. There’s good news too. Stage 3 of the Archery World Cup has just got over in Wroclaw, Poland and guess what, India’s coming back after putting up a good show!

Verma hits the bull’s eye on Independence Day

Indian archery has been going through good times lately and Abhishek Verma, a 26-year old graduate of Hansraj College, Delhi,  has been one of its shining stars. In the 2014 Asian Games held in Incheon, Verma was part of the Indian contingent which won gold in the compound archery team event. In the individual event though, he couldn’t overcome Iran’s Esmaeil Ebadi and had to be satisfied with the silver, losing 141-145 in the final to the Iranian.

But, Verma’s chance of revenge came in the Archery World Cup, where he ensured that there was no letup this time. His opponent in the final of the individual compound men’s event was Ebadi once again, and this time Verma played a perfect game.

Verma shot ahead by two points after the first end and increased his lead by the second. Ebadi did make an effort to come back and kept on fighting, but Verma, seeded 22, kept a cool head and didn’t lose his resolve. The result was more of less a formality after the fourth end where Verma enjoyed a lead of four points and he didn’t let the lead slip, getting sweet revenge over Ebadi with the final scoreline reading 148-145.

There was more delight for Verma – President Pranab Mukherjee was among the ones to recognise his magnificent achievement, tweeting a message of congratulations.

Kumari-Champia notch up a silver

There was further joy for India as Deepika Kumari and Mangal Singh Champia bagged the silver, losing in the final round of the mixed recurve event to the Mexican duo of Aida Roman and Juan Rene Serrano.

A former world number one and a gold medallist at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Kumari will count the silver as another feather in a well-endowed cap. However, she and her partner Champia will be disappointed that they couldn’t go for gold. They started the final well, finishing the first set at 36-36. However, the Indian duo let the momentum get away from them in the second and third sets with Roman and Serrano quick to ram home the advantage.

But that takes nothing away from the duo’s strong performance in the event – they had a comfortable run to the final, with an easy win over France in the semi-finals.

India also narrowly lost out on a bronze in the men’s compound event. Playing against a higher ranked Italian side, the Indian team, consisting of Kawalpreet Singh, Rajat Chauhan and Abhishek Verma, put up a tough fight, losing narrowly by three points.

Kumari, though, will be unhappy with her performance in the individual Women’s Recurve event. She was seeded second in the tournament, but finished ninth. Though she more than made up for it with her performance in the mixed event, Kumari will probably hope to better this performance on an individual level sometime in the future.