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India topped the medal standings at the first leg of the Asia Cup World Ranking Archery tournament, securing eight medals, including 5 gold, at the conclusion of competitions here on Saturday. In the recurve men's section, India's Vishnu Choudhary and Rahul finished 1-2. The other four gold were won by Basanti Mahato (women's recurve), Kushal Dalal (men's compound), men's recurve team of Vishnu, Goldi Mishra and Rahul, and the men's compund team of Kushal, Manav Ganeshrao Jadhao and Ganesh Mani Ratnam. The recurve mixed team of Basanti and Vishnu also picked up a silver, while the women's compound team of Avneet Kaur, Madhuravarshini Muruganantham and Chikitha Taniparthi clinched a bronze. Korea finished second in the medal tally with five medals, including two gold.
Indian archer Harvinder Singh, who won a gold at Paris Paralympics, on Tuesday alleged "discrimination" in the distribution of sports awards and questioned why the Khel Ratna honour was not bestowed on this year's medallists at the Games like the Tokyo edition. Singh, a Tokyo Games bronze winner, claimed his maiden gold medal at Paris after defeating Lukasz Ciszek of Poland in the final 6-0. "Discrimination in sports," Singh wrote on X. "Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Gold medallists were awarded the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, but what about Paris 2024 Paralympic Gold medalists? Same competition, same gold, same pride why not the same award?" Following India's gold-winning performance at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics, shooter Avani Lekhara, javelin thrower Sumit Antil and shuttler Pramod Bhagat were honoured with the Khel Ratna along with Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra. "In the year 2021, all Olympic medal winners and Paralympic gold medal winners were honoured with
India's premier recurve archer Deepika Kumari won her fifth silver medal at the World Cup Final after losing the summit clash 0-6 to China's Li Jiaman, here. Returning to the World Cup Final after three years following the birth of her daughter in December 2022, four-time Olympian Deepika was seeded third in the eight-archer field. She had a smooth run through the semifinals but probably the pressure of gold medal match got to her against fourth-seed Li Jiaman, a team silver medalist from the Paris Olympics. It was Deepika's ninth appearance at the World Cup Final where she has also bagged a bronze. Dola Banerjee is the only Indian archer to have won a gold in the World Cup Final, having topped the podium in Dubai 2007. In the men's recurve section, Dhiraj Bommadevara, despite leading 4-2, could not hold off the challenge from South Korea's Paris Olympics bronze medallist, Lee Woo Seok in the opening round and made an early exit . The pressure once again seemed to affect the Indi
Tokyo Games bronze-winner Harvinder Singh became the first Indian archer to win a gold medal at the Paralympics, beating Poland's Lukasz Ciszek in a lop-sided final here on Wednesday. The 33-year-old Indian, who lost to Kevin Mather of the USA in the Tokyo Paralympics semifinals before securing a bronze three years ago, put up a dominant show to knock out Ciszek 6-0 (28-24, 28-27, 29-25). Harvinder, who is pursuing Ph.D in Economics, won five back-to-back matches in a single day, showing neither fatigue nor nerves to etch his name in history and clinch India's second medal in archery here. Both his legs are impaired owing to the side effects of dengue treatment that he underwent as a toddler.
Indian archer Bhajan Kaur notched twin victories to advance to the women's individual pre-quarterfinals but compatriot Dhiraj Bommadevara exited the men's event after losing in the shoot-off at the Paris Olymics here on Tuesday. Continuing her fine form, the 18-year-old Kaur, who had shot exceptionally well in the team event albeit in a losing cause, defeated Indonesia's Syifa Nurafifah Kamal and Wioleta Myszor of Poland in her opening two rounds. Fourth seed Dhiraj, on the other hand, ended up on the losing side after coming agonisingly close the pre-quarters as he lost his round of 32 match in shoot-off to Canadian Eric Peters. Ankita Bhakat also made an early exit after stumbling in the opening round. She went down 4-6 (26-27 29-26 28-27 27-29 27-28) to Myszor. Kaur took her opening round against the Indonesian 7-3 (27-27 27-29 29-27 27-25 28-25). While the first set was a tie with both archers sharing a point each, Kaur shot three 9s as compared to Kamal's one 9 and two 10s to
A fired-up home crowd couldn't push France past the South Korean juggernaut in the men's team archery final. The first set finished with a score of 57-all, but South Korea took the second 59-58 and the third 59-56 to win 5-1 overall on Monday at Les Invalides. Kim Woo-jin, Kim Je-deok and Lee Woo-seok won the third straight team gold for South Korea. French fans waved their flags feverishly throughout the final and brought the noise whenever one of their archers hit a 10. Even after things clearly were going South Korea's way in the third set, the French fans remained engaged. While we were facing the French team, there was a lot of cheers from the audience," South Korea's Kim Woo-jin said. "That was the biggest challenge. Kim Woo-jin was on the past three winning teams but he has not claimed individual gold. He will compete for that on Aug. 4. He also will participate in the mixed team competition on Aug. 2. I think that some of my first initial goals are already met because tho
With the help of a magnifying glass, South Korea edged China in women's team archery to win its 10th straight gold medal. The score was tied in the final after regulation, forcing a shoot-off. The score appeared to be tied again after the shoot-off, until an official checked with the magnifying glass. Jeon Hun-young and Lim Si-hyeon were ruled to have scored 10 instead of 9 on their shots, giving South Korea a 29-27 win in the shoot-off and a 5-4 win overall. At the moment of the shoot-off, we tried not to think too much," Jeon said. "As we'd prepared before, we were able to do it (just) as we prepared. We have this teamwork, and we only focus on what we can do in the moment, and we don't worry too much. China had high hopes of breaking through after defeating South Korea at the Archery World Cup in 2023. The Olympic Games are a little bit different," China's Yang Xiaolei said. "They are more comprehensive. But we keep focusing on what we do, and it has already proved a lot for us
Debutant Ankita Bhakat left behind seasoned campaigners like Deepika Kumar to emerge as the best-placed Indian archer at 11th in the Paris Olympics' women's individual recurve qualifications as the country secured a quarterfinal spot in the team event by finishing fourth here on Thursday. The 26-year-old Ankita was the top-ranked Indian woman with 666 points, followed by Bhajan Kaur (22nd with 559 points) and Deepika Kumari (23rd with 658 points). In the team event, India grabbed the fourth spot by scoring 1983 points. South Korea topped the standings with 2046 points. China finished runners-up while Mexico grabbed the third spot. The top four in the team standings directly advance to the quarterfinals, while those ending between 5th to 12th play the Round of 16 fixtures. India will face the winner of the contest between France and Netherlands in the quarterfinals. If they clear the quarters, India could be headed for a semifinal showdown with heavyweights Korea. The Korean women
A day after its Korean chief coach Baek Woong Ki was forced to leave following denial of Olympic accreditation, India's archery contingent found itself at the centre of another controversy as it was alleged that a "tainted" physio was accommodated at his expense. The contingent will be without Woong Ki and Dronacharya award-winning High Performance Director Sanjeeva Singh as both of them could not find a place in the contingent's support staff. A top Archery Association of India (AAI) official revealed that instead, physio Arvind Yadav has been included despite the fact that he faced allegations of making an "inappropriate approach" to a Canadian teenager during the Youth World Championships in Limerick, Ireland in November last year. India had won a historic haul of six gold, one silver and four bronze medals at that event. "As per the complaint from the World Archery competition manager Thomas Aubert, Yadav had made an inappropriate approach to a Canadian teenager on social media
Indian recurve mixed team of Dhiraj Bommadevara and Bhajan Kaur produced an excellent performance to rally past Mexico and clinch a bronze medal in the Archery World Cup Stage 3 here on Sunday. Trailing 0-2 after conceding the opening set, the Indian team produced a flawless round to bring it level and seal a stunning 5-3 (35-38, 40-39, 38-37, 38-38) win over their Mexican opponents Alejandra Valencia and Matias Grande. This was India's third medal from the meet and the archers will be in the hunt for two more medals when Dhiraj and Ankita Bhakat compete in their respective individual semifinals later in the day. Indian women's compound team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur bagged a gold medal, while Priyansh bagged a silver on Saturday.
Archer Aditi Swami's parents from Maharashtra's Satara were in a 'suit hunt' at Delhi's Palika Bazar after arriving at the national capital on a frigid winter morning to attend their daughter's Arjuna Award ceremony on Tuesday. After landing in Delhi, Gopichand and Shaila Swami realised that they have come without formal dresses to wear at the National Sports Awards function to be graced by President Droupadi Murmu. So, they rushed to Palika Bazar in Connaught Place to buy formal clothing for the "most special day" of their lives. "We have come with our ordinary clothes but after coming here Aditi told me that we need something formal for the occasion," Gopichand told PTI from Delhi. "To witness our child receiving Arjuna Award from the President will be an unparalleled moment of pride for us. It will be the most cherished moment for a parent. And we must go prepared," said Gopichand, a primary school mathematics teacher at Kanher village in Satara. President Murmu will give away
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday announced that two shooting ranges will be established in Jhajjar and Panchkula while two archery training centres will be set up in Yamunanagar and Faridabad. Khattar felicitated the players from Haryana who won medals at the recently held Asian Games in China. At a grand felicitation ceremony organised at Karnal, players, both medal-winners and others who participated at the event, received cash prizes from the chief minister. Khattar honoured the gold medal-winning athletes with a cash reward of Rs. 3 crore, the silver medalists with Rs 1.5 crore, and bronze medalists with Rs. 75 lakh, along with commendation letters and job offer letters, to recognise their accomplishments. Addressing the gathering, the chief minister said that be it the Olympics, Paralympics or Khelo India, sportspersons from the state have always made the country, and state proud with their performances. Khattar announced the establishment of shooting rang