CHENNAI: It was a historic day for Indian archery as the Indian men's recurve team of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav shocked reigning Olympic champions South Korea in a historic win to land an Archery World Cup gold medal after 14 years in Shanghai. In a battle between the top two seeds of the competition, India won 5-1 to take their gold medal count to five in the season-opening Stage 1 World Cup. Deepika Kumari, on her return to competitive archery, won the silver medal in the recurve women's event while the recurve mixed team of Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj bagged the bronze. Earlier in the competition, the compound archery contingent had added four gold medals and a silver medal to India's tally.
What makes this men's team win even more special is the fact that India were up against the favourites, South Korea, who featured two members of the Tokyo Olympics gold medal-winning team, Kim Woojin and Kim Je Deok. Deepika also defeated her Korean rivals Jeon Hunyoung and Nam Suhyeon in the quarterfinal and semifinal, respectively. However, she lost to Hangzhou Asian Games champion Lim Sihyeon of Korea in straight sets.
So far, India have a solitary Olympic berth which was earned by Dhiraj in the men's individual section. The final Olympic qualifying event is the Stage 3 World Cup in Antalya, Turkey, from June 18 to 23 following which the team rankings will offer two additional quotas for the first time.
Earlier, Jyothi Surekha Vennam, India's most decorated compound archer, added another feather to her cap with three gold medals. The Asian Games gold medallist bagged her women's team top honours with Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur. She then teamed up with Abhishek Verma to win the mixed team gold and beat Mexico's Andrea Becerra to win the individual gold medal. In the men's event, the Verma, Priyansh and Prathamesh Fuge team grabbed the gold, while Priyansh settled for silver.
"The way I shot in the individual competition, I didn't expect to take the gold. But it is with me now," Vennam, who won every possible gold medal on offer in her categories told this daily from Shanghai. It was a nail-biting competition between the top two seeded compound archers in the final where both athletes started well but lost their way towards the death and the scores were tied in the regulation. In the shoot-off, both archers shot nine, but Vennam's arrow was relatively closer to the middle of the target, she won the gold medal by the barest of margins.
"I just wanted to give my best shot even though I was not expecting a shootout because the last arrow I shot, I was like, it's gone. Everything is gone. But the opponent shot eight and it went into a shoot-off. I said to myself that you've got another chance just go and give your best. Even if shot out it was not a very good shot. I thought it was not going to happen. But again, it was like there was a magnetic force or something. I was shocked like when she shot and then everyone was cheering, but I was speechless," Vennam, who could not believe her luck, said.
With this win, Vennam qualified for her second Archery World Cup Final, to be held in Tlaxcala, Mexico, later this year. In her illustrious career, the World Cup final trophy is the only missing piece so far and the 27-year-old aims to win that trophy this season. "The aim is not securing a sport for the final World Cup, but maybe winning it because I don't have an individual medal in the World Cup final. That is one I want," she added.
After bagging the gold medal in the mixed event with Verma, Vennam applauded the chemistry and understanding with him on the field. "As a team are good and we did an amazing job last year. We have got a really very good result. I can say we are there to support each other as a team. It's great to shoot with them again and win it. This is not the first time I have shot with Abhishek. We have won many medals as a team in mixed-team events, but the last time we shot as a team was in July 2022. It is also special because we didn't get to shoot as a team a lot," Vennam mentioned.
While the recurve archery contingent would hope to earn more Olympic quotas in the coming months, their compound counterparts would be preparing for their next challenge, the second stage of the World Cup to be held in South Korea. For now, the record of eight medals in a single archery World Cup stage is safe with India.