Great Britain just edged out India and Italy at the top of the medal table as Rome 2025 wrapped up on Saturday with gold medal finals across multiple individual and team categories at the Stadio dei Marmi.
The biggest scalp of the day was India’s Rakesh Kumar, the highest ranked archer going in, but here only the third seed beating the favourite, Britain’s Nathan MacQueen.
Kumar found the gears precisely when he needed them to pressure the experienced Macqueen, a Paralympic gold medallist. “It feels very good, coming all the way from India, from a small village in Katra and coming here to win a gold medal and doing it with the last three arrows being 10-10-10. It’s just a very good feeling.” said Rakesh.
Last year, the Indian archer finished in an agonising 4th place in the Paris individual competition, but was part of the mixed team bronze medal with Sheetal Devi. He was also a mixed team gold medallist at the 2023 Worlds.
It wouldn’t be the last time that day India edged out Great Britain, as Dhanna Ram Godara pushed out Cameron Radigan for gold, 7-3 in a five-setter recurve men’s final, as Milena Olszewska, the Paralympic bronze medallist at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games took gold against Dorothea Poimenidou, marking the Pole’s first major win since 2018.
