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India claim recurve team bronze double

17 August 2023

Paris, France

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India claimed a pair of recurve team bronze medals at the 2023 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Paris, as Korea and Chinese Taipei qualified both teams for Sunday’s gold medal matches.

The recurve men’s team of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Atanu Das and Tushar Prabhakar Shelke were the first to seal their place on the podium as they came from behind to beat Spanish trio Pablo Acha, Yun Sanchez and Andres Temino.

Spain had defeated fourth seeds USA en route to the last four, but the Indian team ultimately proved a step too far in sunny Paris conditions.

Bronze in Paris is India’s third Hyundai Archery World Cup recurve team medal this year, and the archers hailed the influence of coach Sergio Pagni.

“He’s the finest coach, I have seen,” said Das. “[He’s teaching us] how the mindset works, how archers should shoot in tournaments and in practice, how can we train and get better day by day.”

“It’s a perfect example for a good archer because he was an archer too.”

The recurve women’s team of Bhajan Kaur, Ankita Bhakat and Simranjeet Kaur then repeated the feat with a bronze of its own, as it beat Mexico’s Alejandra Valencia, Angela Ruiz and Aida Roman in a shoot-off after the teams were locked at 4-4.

Korea and Chinese Taipei will face off in both of the recurve team gold medal matches, as both men’s and women’s teams powered their way through Thursdays elimination rounds.

In the women’s bronze medal match, the Mexico trio had raced into a 4-0 lead but were reeled back in by India who levelled the scores before a perfect shot from Bhajan sealed the victory in the shoot-off.

“The men’s team won one bronze before us, so we were very motivated to see them, and we just followed their footsteps,” said Simranjeet.

The Korean women An San, Kang Chae Young and Lim Sihyeon tasted shock disappointment at the 2023 Hyundai World Archery Championships last month as it crashed out of the team event before the last eight but were back to its best in the French capital.

They eased past Denmark 6-0 before beating Spain by the same margin in the quarterfinals.

A place in Sunday’s gold medal match was then sealed with another straight sets victory over Mexico, where it will face a Chinese Taipei team in similarly strong form.

Chiu Yi-Ching, Lei Chien-Ying and Peng Chia-Mao opened their morning with a 6-0 victory over Great Britain, before edging past Netherlands 5-3 in a four-set thriller and then booking its place in Sunday’s final in straight sets over bronze medallists India.

Korea and Chinese Taipei recurve women teams

The two nations will also face off in the recurve men’s team final, with world champions Korea cruising through its elimination matches.

The team of Kim Woojin, Kim Je Deok and Lee Woo Seok beat Ukraine 5-1 before recording back-to-back straight sets victories over Türkiye and Spain to secure a chance to win a third consecutive World Cup gold team medal.

Standing in its way are Chinese Taipei, the same team they defeated in the final Medellin in June, after the team of Su Yu-Yang, Tai Yu-Hsuan and Wei Chun-Heng battled their way through four matches on Thursday.

An opening 6-0 victory over Denmark was the perfect start before a shoot-off was required to get past France.

A back-and-forth contest against China in the last eight saw them emerge winners before the trio romped to a straight-sets victory over India to guarantee a medal.

They now face the imperious Korea in the final, but Wei is not feeling the extra pressure.

“The biggest challenge is ourselves,” he said. “To challenge ourselves and exceed every time.”

Action in Paris continues on Thursday afternoon with compound individual eliminations.