Atanu Das shoots bronze at the Asian Archery Championships
The 27-year-old won a shoot-out against South Korea’s Jin Hyek Oh to capture his maiden Asian Archery Championship medal in an individual event.
Indian archer Atanu Das captured his second medal in as many days, winning the bronze medal in the men’s recurve event at the 2019 Asian Archery Championships in Bangkok on Tuesday.
Das began his day by blanking Malaysia’s Muhamad Zarif Syahiir Zolkpeli 6-0 in the fourth round to advance to the quarterfinals. The 27-year-old was the sole Indian left in the final eight, as both, Tarundeep Rai and Jayanta Talukdar were beaten 4-6 by South Koreans Pil-Joong Kim and Jin Hyek Oh, respectively.
Das, seemingly unfazed, cruised to another 6-0 win against Sanzhar Mussayev of Kazakhstan to book his place in the semifinal against top seed and the reigning Olympic champion Woojin Kim.
The Korean proved to be too good on the day for Das, as he ended the Indian archer’s quest for gold with a 7-1 win.
The defeat set up a bronze medal duel against Oh and the two archers went back-and-forth over five sets and with nothing to separate the two, the match went into a shoot-off.
The first shoot-off did not yield a winner, but Das won the second to take home the bronze medal. This was his second medal at the Asian Archery Championships after his bronze victory alongside Deepika Kumari in the recurve mixed team event.
Das will have another shot at winning a medal after the Indian men’s recurve team’s 5-1 victory over Bangladesh in the quarterfinals.