Riding on 17-year-old debutant Kumkum Mohod’s stellar performance, the Indian archery squad achieved historic milestones and contributed the maximum number of gold medals to the country’s tally at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

Even though nine of the 12-member team were debutants, the archers matched their nine-medal haul from Hangzhou, showcasing India’s depth and retaining their top spot.

Significantly, five of the nine medals, including two golds, came in recurve. India also secured Olympic quota places in the women’s recurve individual and compound mixed team events.

The recurve medals and the compound mixed gold are good omens for a country that recorded its best-ever fourth-place finish in the mixed team event at Paris 2024, ahead of the 2028 Olympics.

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Kumkum’s arrows wrote a phenomenal story on the archery field. The Amaravati archer experienced a meteoric rise, toppling big names to top the first selection trials in Kolkata in January. She also secured a place in the second phase at Sonepat to book her ticket to Japan. Prior to the Asiad, she tasted success by securing two World Cup Stage gold medals.

Displaying immense composure under pressure, Kumkum clinically dismantled the Korean recurve women’s archers’ four-decade-old hegemony and broke a mental barrier. Despite having sponsorship, Kumkum chose her familiar eight-year-old bow to pass one Korean test after another.

She played anchor as she led the Indian women’s team, also comprising Ankita Bhakat and newcomer Kirti Sharma, to tame Korea — featuring Worlds and Olympic medallist Kang Chaeyoung, Lee Yunj and former World youth champion Oh Yejin — 5-3 in the final.

Then she combined with the experienced Dhiraj Bommadevara to settle for mixed team silver after a 3-5 loss in the final to China’s Zhu Jingyi and Li Mengqi.

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Kumkum, who reads books to develop mental toughness, returned the next day to eliminate two Koreans (Kang and Oh) and one Chinese (Zhu) for the historic individual gold. Implementing her guru’s mantra, ‘Focus on the process’, she rallied twice to level the scores at 5-5 and shot a 10 when it mattered to win the tie-breaker 10-8.

After her brush with success, Kumkum’s basics coach Praful Dange issued a caution. “She must stay grounded and learn to handle success. The bigger goal is an Olympic medal,” said Dange, who worked in tandem with women’s team coach Udham Singh.

Speaking of Udham, he expertly transformed an unexpected trio into a successful unit. Udham — who picked Kirti early and convinced her parents to shift her base from Jind to Hazaribag to groom her at an archery academy — got the two teenagers and the experienced Ankita to open up, understand each other better and develop as a team.

“At the Sonepat camp, we prepared for all conditions and played matches on a similar podium,” said Udham.

The recurve men didn’t disappoint as the triumvirate of Dhiraj, Neeraj Chauhan and Yashdeep Bhoge retained the team silver. In an all-Indian clash for bronze, Neeraj got past Dhiraj, who rewrote the Asian Games record by scoring 690 in the qualification phase, to end India’s 16-year wait for an individual medal.

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Indian compound archers were not far behind. They made a clean sweep of the team gold medals, with Sahil Jadhav and Chikitha Taniparthi emerging as the new icons.

The trio of Chikitha, Prithika Pradeep and seasoned campaigner Jyothi Surekha Vennam overcame China 238-234 in the women’s team final while equalling the world record.

India, represented by Sahil, Kushal Dalal and Ganesh Mani Ratnam Thirumuru, edged past China 238-237 in the men’s team summit clash.

The Chikitha-Sahil pair, which reset the Games record with 1,414 points, pipped Koreans Park Jungyoon and Choi Yonghee in a tie-breaker, 157-157 (20-19), in a keenly fought mixed team final.

Chikitha, who claimed the World Under-21 gold last year, proved herself at World Cup Stages before shining at the Asiad.

“Chikitha will be Jyothi Surekha 2.0. I hope she gets a job and eases her family’s financial burden,” said her mentor Abhishek Verma.

Twenty-five-year-old Maharashtra archer Sahil’s doggedness earned him the World University crown in 2025. He continued to grow in confidence before cornering glory.

“My training level gave me confidence,” said Sahil, who metamorphosed from an apprehensive to a bold archer as he picked the brain of his coach Haresh Kumar at the Sports Authority of India centre in Kolkata.

Ganesh, who followed his coach Kamal Kishore from Bhimavaram to Sonepat to avoid travel issues, won an individual bronze.

Overall, the stupendous show by the Indian archers across the two divisions will serve as a massive morale booster and should make the country a force to reckon with at Los Angeles 2028.

Published on Oct 04, 2026