Back-to-back medals in recurve archery at the Asian Games . A gold and a silver. Who would have thunk it?
The Indian combine lost to China 5-3 in the final after beating Japan in the semi-final to fall one step short of securing an early quota for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. India did, apparently. A couple of hours after the Indian women’s team took the historic gold, the mixed recurve team of Dhiraj Bommadevara and Kumkum Mohod backed it up by adding the silver at the Aichi-Nagoya Games on Friday.
China had the first set comfortably in the bag at 38-34 after Dhiraj started with an 8 and Kumkum shot a rare lowly 7 across her day’s twin finals. The teen shot a couple more 8s, which meant that despite Dhiraj hitting 10, China also took the second set 37-35. Li Mengqi, needing an 8 to tie the set and take the match, sprayed a 7 as India stole the set 37-36. With a 10 required to avoid a shoot-off, his final shot delivered just that. In the semi-finals, the Japanese duo started off strong, shooting 10 more than the Indians to take the first set 38-37. An all-9 tied second set meant Japan were ahead 3-1, and India needed a resurgence of sorts. A couple of 10s from Kumkum, backed up by an X (inner 10) from Dhiraj, brought India back in the 39-35 third set. With the Indians shooting three 9s and a 10 in the final set, it all came down to Junya Nakanishi’s final shot. A 10 would have given Japan the win. A 9 would have tied the match. He shot a 7.
China were almost at the finish line, until India were suddenly handed a lifeline. Mengqi soon redeemed himself. India’s fightback fell short after it had crossed the line against Japan. India sneaked into the final and had another recurve medal to flaunt.
After a red-hot team final, Kumkum, already a gold medallist earlier in the day, was having somewhat of an off-colour start to the mixed final.
This is India’s first medal in the mixed-team recurve event, which became part of the Asian Games programme in 2018.
