Jignas and mixed teams strike gold in Asian GP

India added two mixed team gold medals to teenage compound archer Chittibomma Jignas's individual gold on the penultimate day of the first Asian Grand Prix archery tournament in Bangkok on Saturday.

India won three silvers through Mangal Singh Champia (men's recurve), Chekrovolu Swuro (women's recurve) and Rajat Chauhan (men's compound) and the lone bronze through veteran Jhano Hansdah (women's compound). Jignas downed compatriot Chauhan in the tie-breaker after they tied at 144. Jignas's shot was found to be closer to the centre as both hit the bull's eye in the men's compound final. The mixed recurve team of Jayanta Talukdar and L. Bombayla Devi won gold beating a Japanese pair at 143-142 in the final while the compound mixed team of Chauhan and Hansdah out shot Myanmar archers at 151-148.

The most coveted gold medals eluded India as the two recurve archers Champia and Chekrovolu lost their nerve and the top position. Champia and Frenchman Romain Girouille shared the five sets to be locked at five set points each. In a single arrow each tie-breaker, the Frenchman hit a nine as against the Indian's eight.

Chekrovolu won the first two sets to lead 4-0 against Ren Hayakawa.

One bad first shot in the third set unnerved the Indian as the Japanese took full advantage of the aberration to clinch the next three to take the gold at 6-4 set points.

The results: Individual events:

Recurve:Men: Final: Romain Girouille (Fra) bt Mangal Singh Champia (Ind) 6-5 (tiebreak 9-8).

Third: A.M. Khairul (Mas) bt E. Cuesta (Esp) 7-3.

Women: Final: Ren Hayakawa (Jpn) bt Chekrovolu Swuro (Ind) 6-4.

Third: Urangungalag Bishindee (Mgl) bt Siyi Lu (Chn) 6-0.

Compound: Men: Final: Ch. Jignas (Ind) bt Rajat Chauhan (Ind) 144-144 (on tie-break).

Third: Nguyen Tien Cuong (Vie) bt Ritul Chatterjee (Ind) 145-144.

Women: Final: Aung Ngeain (Myn) bt Nurfatehah M.S. Fatin (Mas) 143-136.

Third: Jhano Hansdah (Ind) bt Gagandeep Kaur (Ind) 139-139 (10-8).