Media365
It was a day when India broke the South Korean stronghold in archery by picking up gold in both the men’s and women’s recurve individual events along with the men’s team event on the concluding day of the Asian Archery Championship at the National Stadium in Dhaka on Friday. The recurve archers followed up the good show of their compound counterparts to top the medals table, finishing the campaign with 10 medals — six gold, three silver and one bronze. India thus improved upon their 2023 Asian Championships performance in Bangkok, where they had won seven medals — three gold, one silver and three bronze. The day began on a bright note when the men’s recurve team stunned heavyweights South Korea in a nerve-wracking shoot-off to clinch its first Asian Championships gold in 18 years. India last won this crown in 2007, and since then South Korea had maintained an unbroken streak of triumphs in this category at the regional tournament. Olympian Ankita Bhakat then pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament by beating Paris Olympics silver-medallist Nam Suhyeon of South Korea 7-3 in the final. Earlier, the Bengal girl defeated top seed Jang Minhee of South Korea to reach the semifinals, where she defeated former world No. 1 Deepika Kumari 6-5 via shoot-off. India also won the women’s recurve bronze after Sangeeta edged out five-time Olympian Deepika 6-5 in another dramatic shoot-off. In the men’s individual semifinal, Olympian Dhiraj Bommadevara got past Jang Chaehwan of Korea 6-2, while another Indian, Rahul Pawariya, thrashed Seo Mingi, who topped their national trials, 6-0 to set up an all-India final. In the summit clash, Dhiraj prevailed 6-2 to make it a 1-2 for India. It was some solace for Ankita and Dhiraj, who missed out on an Olympic medal.
