Asia Cup archery 2023: Dominant India finish with 10 medals at Taoyuan

Indian archers finished with a rich haul of 10 medals - five gold, four silver and one bronze - at the Asia Cup 2023 archery stage-1 world ranking tournament in Taoyuan, Chinese Taipei on Sunday.

India secured gold medals in the men’s recurve and compound, women’s compound, recurve men’s team and compound women’s team events. The silver medals in men’s recurve and compound, women’s compound and compound men’s team also went India’s way. The bronze came in the compound mixed team event.

In the recurve archery men’s final, India’s Rahul beat compatriot Rampal Choudhary 6-2 for gold. Rampal Choudhary settled for silver. In the recurve women’s event, however, India’s campaign ended after Srushti Balaji Jogdand lost in the quarter-finals.

India swept gold and silver in the compound men’s event after Pawan Gat defeated Priyansh 10-9 in shoot-off in the final. The compound women’s final too saw India clinch gold and silver after Pragati edged out Parneet Kaur in the shoot-off.

The recurve men’s team raked in the gold medal after India’s Rahul, Rampal Choudhary and Parth Salunkhe overcame the Saudi Arabian trio of Mansour Alwi, Rashed Alsubaie and Abdul Rahman Almus 5-3 in the final. Meanwhile, the recurve women’s team finished empty-handed following their defeat to Australia in the bronze medal match.

In the compound women’s team final, the Indian trio of Pragati, Praneet Kaur and Aishwarya Sharma clinched gold with a 227-215 win over Kazakhstan’s Viktoriya Lyan, Adel Zhexenbinova and Roxana Yunussova. Meanwhile, the compound men’s team of Venkatadri Kunderu, Pawan Gat and Priyansh lost to Malaysian trio of Mohd Juwaidi Marzuki, Mohammad Syafiq Md Ariffin and Muhammad Alang Ariff 226-225 to settle for silver.

On Friday, the Indian compound mixed team pair of Priyansh and Pragati clinched the bronze medal.

In all, 16 Indian archers - eight men and eight women - competed at the Asia Cup 2023 Taoyuan. However, big names like Atanu Das, Deepika Kumari, Tarundeep Rai, Pravin Jadhav and Abhishek Verma skipped the competition.

Asia Cup archery 2023 Taoyuan: India’s medal winners list

Gold medals

Recurve men - Rahul

Compound men - Pawan Gat

Compound women - Pragati

Recurve men’s team - Rahul, Rampal Choudhary and Parth Salunkhe

Compound women’s team - Pragati, Praneet Kaur and Aishwarya Sharma

Silver medals

Recurve men - Rampal Choudhary

Compound men - Priyansh

Compound women - Parneet Kaur

Compound men’s team - Venkatadri Kunderu, Pawan Gat and Priyansh

Bronze medal

Compound mixed team - Priyansh and Pragati