Archery
India only country except South Korea to win a gold medal at Asian Archery Championships
Compound archer Jyoti Surekha Vennam clinched the solitary gold medal for India
Indian men's recurve team won the silver medal in their final match at Asian Archery Championship 2021, to end the campaign on a winning note. With this, India concluded their tournament by winning one gold, four silver and two bronze medals, sitting second on the medal tally behind the sport's powerhouse South Korea.
From the five competing nations in the continental championships, India was the only country apart from South Korea to end their campaign with at least one gold medal. The compound archer Jyoti Surekha Vennam clinched the solitary gold medal for India in the women's individual compound event. Jyoti defeated South Korea's Oh Yoohyun 146-145 in the final.
If not for the 25-year-old Indian, the South Koreans would have ended their campaign with gold medals in each of the ten events played in Dhaka.
The Indian men's compound team of Abhishek Verma, Aman Saini and Rishabh Yadav won India's first medal at Archery Asian Championship 2021 after beating the hosts in a bronze medal match. The Indians started the game with perfect 10s and were in the lead throughout, eventually winning 235-233 to the Bangladesh team.
The second medal of the tournament came from Indian compound archers Jyoti Surekha and Rishabh Yadav, as they won the silver in the mixed compound event. It was a very close match against the South Korean duo, as the Indians lost the gold by just one point before Jyothi redeemed herself in the individual section.
Compound archer Abhishek Verma won the silver medal in the men's individual event after losing to South Korea's Kim Jongho in the final. The Indian archer faced a two-point defeat as Kim won with a score of 149-147.
Towards the end of the tournament, the Indian recurve mixed team of Ankita Bhagat and Kapil won the bronze medal match against the Uzbekistan duo. Hence, Ankita and Kapil won India's fifth medal in the tournament, with their win.
Lastly, the men's recurve team's silver medal was a cherry on the top finish for the Indian contingent.
The Asian Archery Championship 2021 was held from 14-19th November in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The husband-wife duo of Indian Olympic archers Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das were all missing in action as they couldn't make the cut during selection trials. Recurve archer Praveen Jadhav was the only Olympian in the 16-member squad for the tournament.