Kolkata : Indian Women Archery team on back of Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat, Kumkum Mohod secured historic Gold Medal against host China in Archery World Cup 2026.
The fourth-seeded Indian trio, up against a young second-seeded Chinese archery team of Zhu Jingyi, Huang Yuwei and Yu Qi, won the shoot-off 28-26 after both sides were level at 4-4 at the end of four sets.
Ankita Bhakat who secured 4th position in Paris Olympics 2024 in Mixed team event opened the shoot-off with a 9 before Kumkum followed with a 10.
With 8 needed to secure victory, 4-time Olympic champion Deepika Kumari shot 9 to complete the win, and her personal 39th Archery World Cup medal.
Previously in the semi final of Women’s Recurve Archery, India defeated top seeded and 10 times Olympic champion South Korea 5-1.
With the Gold, India concluded the Shanghai leg of the Archery World Cup 2026 series with two medals. Sahil Jadhav won a bronze medal in the men’s individual compound event on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Simranjeet Kaur missed out on a bronze medal on Sunday after losing the medal match 6-4 against the Republic of Korea’s Jang Minhee – a former world champion and an Olympic team gold medallist.
Kaur was the only Indian archer to make the individual semi-finals in the recurve events but lost her last four clash to South Korea’s Kang Chaeyoung – the reigning world champion – by a 6-0 scoreline.
Kang Chaeyoung, also a Tokyo 2020 team gold medallist like Jang Minhee, beat the Indian veteran Deepika Kumari 6-4 in the round of 16.
Earlier in the qualifying round, Kaur finished 15th behind the other three Indians – Ankita Bhakat (10th), Kumkum Anil Mohod (11th) and Deepika Kumari (14th).
Kumkum Mohod also lost in the round of 16 while Ankita Bhakat could not make it past the round of 32.
India had a terrific tournament. In the round of 16, they defeated Uzbekistan 6-2, a win that induced confidence in the young team. The quarterfinal against Vietnam was a tough game and went down to the wire, but India held its nerves, winning 28-25 in the decider. Not many expected India to beat South Korea, a force to reckon with, in the semifinal, but the Indian team punched above their weight. Scores of 58-55 and 58-56 in the opening and closing sets showed that Indian team could maintain high scoring levels against elite opposition. The semifinal win over South Korea put India on par with China as favourites to win the title.
