Asian Games | Indian compound archery teams’ domination complete

India is assured of at least five medals in archery at the ongoing Asian Games

Gold medallist Indian women archers Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Gopichand Swami pose for photos with gold medallist compatriot men archers Ojas Pravin Deotale, Prathamesh Samadhan Jawkar and Abhishek Verma, coaches Sergio Pagni and Sanjeeva Singh and others after the Compound Team Archery events at the 19th Asian Games, in Hangzhou, China, on October 5, 2023. | Photo Credit: PTI

With the scores tied at 200 each, Indian archers needed to hit three perfect 10s in a row to stay alive in the compound women’s team final at the Fuyang Arena.

First, Parneet Kaur hit a 10 before Aditi Swami and Jyothi Surekha followed suit with 10s to put the pressure back on Chinese Taipei. Taipei slipped up with the first arrow which assured India’s gold medal and it won 230-229.

Later, the trio of Abhishek Verma, Ojas Pravin Deotale and Prathamaesh Jawkar won the men’s team gold by beating South Korea 235-230 in the final.

Treble beckons

The victory took India archery gold tally to three and with Abhishek, Ojas and Jyothi in the finals of the men’s and women’s individual events, the tally could go to five. Jyothi, who also won the mixed team final on Wednesday, is on course for treble.

“My golden girls,” said a proud Sanjeeva Singh, India’s high-performance director of archery.

It was not too long ago when India and the rest of the world feared South Korea and its ruthless archers.

“South Korea fear us in compound archery now,” said Abhishek, who was part of the team which won India its first gold in archery at the Asian Games in 2010.

“When I started in 2004, there were just four compound archers in the country. Now there are over 10,000!” added Abhishek.

India is in the midst of a phenomenal run this year after its success in the World Cups and World Championships. In the World championships in Berlin, India won its maiden three gold medals at the level to finish top of the medals tally for the first time.

However, compound archery is still not part of the Olympic programme with an application being sent by World Archery for the archery form to be included in the Los Angeles 2028 programme.

“I hope it comes in 2028 in indoor form and we will be the first to win gold,” proclaimed a confident Sanjeeva. “For any Olympic medal, you need to work eight years behind and I have been working for 20 years. And by the time, compound archery is introduced to the Olympics, we will be ready.”