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India reaches first World Cup recurve mixed team final since Antalya 2022

9 June 2026

Antalya, Türkiye

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Kumkum Mohod and Dhiraj Bommadevara with a thumbs up at the target at Antalya 2026.

Dhiraj Bommadevara and Kumkum Anil Mohod may be one of the youngest pairs in the recurve mixed team field at Antalya 2026, but their inexperience proved no obstacle as India sailed into the gold medal match on Thursday.

The duo is new this season and had only shot one match together before Antalya, suffering a 5-3 second-round defeat to Brazil at the opening stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Puebla.

Their run in Türkiye was a different story.

India conceded only four set points throughout the day, defeating Denmark 6-0, USA 6-2 and Germany 6-2 to book a place in Sunday’s final against Korea.

It marks India’s first Hyundai Archery World Cup recurve mixed team gold medal match since Antalya 2022, when Ridhi and Tarundeep Rai edged Great Britain’s Bryony Pitman and Alex Wise in a shoot-off.

“It’s only possible because of our team,” said Bommadevara, who already owns two Hyundai Archery World Cup mixed team bronze medals from Shanghai and Antalya in 2024. “Over many World Cups recently we’ve had a hard time.”

“We are shooting well, but sometimes it’s just the tiny things. You can say luck was not on our side, but luckily from now on I think luck is on our side.”

The Indian archer also reflected on the narrow recurve men’s team shoot-off defeat earlier in the day.

“We shot pretty well, but we lost by inches, and the same happened at the previous two World Cups,” he added. “The good part is we didn’t lose hope and we are continuing what we are doing.”

Bommadevara also credited senior teammates Atanu Das and Tarundeep Rai for helping guide the younger generation.

“They’ve taught me many things, like how to make the team stronger and how to have those conversations,” he said. “I’m so lucky to have this team with me and with this result I think we are happy.”

Dhiraj Bommadevara of India and Katharina Bauer of Germany aiming alongside each other at Antalya 2026.

There are similarities between this Indian pairing and the one that won gold in Antalya four years ago.

Partnered with the vastly more experienced Rai – already a three-time Olympian at the time – Ridhi was only 18 when India won recurve mixed team gold in Antalya in 2022.

Mohod, meanwhile, is just 17 and competing in her first season on the Hyundai Archery World Cup circuit.

Dhaka 2025 Asian Champion Bommadevara may not yet have Rai’s level of experience – Paris 2024 remains his only Olympic Games appearance so far at age 24 – but he is now in his fifth consecutive season on archery’s premier international circuit.

Mohod has already experienced the pressure of the World Cup stage after helping India win recurve women’s team gold in Shanghai, where she shot the winning arrow in the shoot-off against China.

While Mohod continues to lean on the experience around her – much as she did with 2010 Commonwealth Games Champion Deepika Kumari last month – Bommadevara also knows India’s mixed team success will depend heavily on the teenager’s talent.

Facing reigning Olympic gold medallist Korea in the gold medal match is a formidable task, but with India’s Asian Games trials now completed, Bommadevara believes the team can focus fully on performance.

“After finishing our trials, we have some clarity on what to do,” he said. “We have things that we can experiment on and things we can learn from.”

“Before trials we were confused about what we needed to focus on – World Cups or trials – but now it’s good that we are only focusing on World Cups and the Asian Games.”

Competition continues on Friday in Antalya with compound and recurve individual eliminations.