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Indian youths top medal table at first Asia Cup of 2023

19 March 2023

Taoyuan, Chinese Taipei

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Pragati wins compound women’s gold at the first Asia Cup of 2023.

India won 10 medals in total, including five golds, as the nation’s youth squad dominated the competition at the opening event of the Asia Cup this week in Taoyuan. Pragati, Pawan Gat and Rahul collected individual wins, with the recurve men and compound women adding team gongs.

Only second-seeded recurve woman Lin Chia Yu, representing host Chinese Taipei, broke the sweep of the individual titles.

Taoyuan marked compound women’s gold medallist Pragati’s second consecutive win on the Asia Cup, having also finished top at the last leg of 2022 in Sharjah. It’s only been three years since she suffered a stroke at the age of 16, fighting back from intensive care to eventually return to competition in 2021.

“It was challenging but I accept it. I’m not satisfied but I’ll try my best next time,” she said after dropping teammate Parneet Kaur with a better nine in the final tiebreak.

All three Indian individual wins came in all-Indian finals.

Gat and Rahul, the two men’s victors, had their post-event expectations very clear. Both issued the same statement of intent: “I want to win the youth world championships.”

Fortunately, they compete in different categories.

This Indian team appears to be similar, if not the same, that will be sent to Limerick in mid-July for the World Archery Youth Championships.

Kazakstan, Malaysia and Bangladesh were the other countries to collect team gold medals in Taoyuan. The Bangladeshi recurve mixed team, featuring Olympian Diya Siddique, was impressive. She and Hakim Rubel finished with a 39-point set to down Kazakhstan, 5-3, in their final.

There’s one more ranking event before the official start of the outdoor season in April – this time European-based and the Spring Arrows in Antalya.