Indian archers continued their impressive performance at the Archery Asia Cup, securing four team medals on the first day of the finals at Stage 3 in Suwon, Korea, on Friday. The recurve women’s team clinched the only medal in the recurve archery discipline.
India fielded a young team for this Asia Cup to provide them with exposure to international competition at the archery hub of South Korea. On the finals day of the team competition, India won two silver and two bronze medals.
The recurve women’s team, consisting of Basanti Mahato, Sharvari Shende, and Bhargaviben Bhagora, upset an experienced Uzbekistan team in the bronze medal match to secure the first recurve medal at the event.
Fourteen-year-old Sharvari Shende stood out as the best player among all six archers in this match, being the only one to average above 9 (9.25) in the bronze medal match. Host Korea clinched the gold medal with an easy win over Japan in the final.
The Indian recurve men’s and mixed teams could not advance to the medal matches, losing their respective quarterfinals to Mongolia and Uzbekistan.
All three team medals in compound
The Indian compound archers continued their dominance in Asia by clinching all three team medals on the finals day. The compound women’s team started the session with a silver medal after a close defeat to Korea in the final.
Meanwhile, the men’s team achieved a commanding victory against Chinese Taipei to secure their medal. The final medal of the day came in the mixed team event, where the Indian team secured their second silver medal of the event.
Although India did not win a gold medal in the team competition, they have one final opportunity to end the tournament on a high note as Kumund Saini will compete in the women’s individual final on Saturday.