New Delhi: Three years ago, when Indian archers returned from the Hangzhou Asian Games with nine medals (5 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze), few would have expected them to repeat the performance. The 12-member archery team matched that medal count in Japan, including carving a slice of history by ending the Korean monopoly in the sport.
India defeated Mongolia (160-146), Kazakhstan (159-154), Thailand (156-155) to set up a final against heavyweights Korea. With both teams tied at 157, the match went into a shoot-off where India prevailed 20-19. Trailing slightly under pressure, Chikitha shot a 10 and Sahil followed with a 10 in the shoot-off, while the Korean pair managed a 10 and a 9. 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. This is India’s first medal in the mixed team recurve event, which became part of the Asian Games programme from 2018.
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.
Gold: Compound men’s team Gold: Compound women’s team Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Prithika Pradeep and Chikitha Taniparthi accounted for Kazakhstan (233-230), Korea (234-233) and China (238-234) on the way to team gold, firmly underlining India’s compound strength. Kumkum Mohod, Ankita Bhakat, and Kirti Sharma defeated Korea 5-3 in the final, a result that’s bound to be remembered for a long time. Two of them, 17-year-old Kumkum and 19-year-old Kirti, were in their first Asian Games. Ankita, 28, part of the 2023 bronze-winning team, has been India’s most consistent female recurve archer over the last few years but sought a big-stage medal. After losing to South Korea’s Kim Jong-ho in the semi-final, Ganesh bounced back brilliantly in the bronze medal match to defeat Vietnam’s Dang Cong Duc 149-144. The Indian fired all 10s through the first three ends, his first and only 9 came off his 11th shot of the 15-shot contest.
Kirti’s father, a farmer in Haryana, hesitantly sent his daughter to the SAI centre in Hazaribagh with coach Udham Singh so that she could pursue the sport she was good at without even once watching her compete. “I was just happy and not worried about anything else. I wanted to be there for the team, and for the team to do well. Ganesh Thirumuru backed up his men’s team gold with an individual bronze. With a three-point lead heading into the final end, it was enough to secure the bronze.
“I was really having a good time shooting in the final,” Jyothi, India’s most experienced and accomplished compound archer, told HT. Kumkum’s father, who runs a sweet box manufacturing business and was busy distributing sweets himself on Friday, wanted his daughter to pick up archery.
