Men's team claims silver, women win bronze
HANGZHOU: Indian archers continued to reap rich rewards at the Asian Games here after the men's and women's recurve teams won silver and bronze, respectively on Friday.
The men's team, comprising Atanu Das, Dhiraj Bommadevara and Tushar Shelke, settled for silver after falling short against the South Korean trio of Lee Wooseok, Oh Jinhyek and Kim Je Deok in the final. The Indians lost the gold medal match 1-5.
Competing against the Koreans was always going to be a tough ask for Atanu & Co as all three of their opponents were gold medallists in the team event at the World Championships in Berlin this year. Earlier, India had defeated Bangladesh 4-2 in the semifinals after accounting for Mongolia 5-4 in the quarters.
Meanwhile, the women's team of Ankita Bhakat, Bhajan Kaur and Simranjeet Kaur had to be content with a bronze finish after losing 2-6 to South Korea in the semifinal. They triumphed in the bronze medal match, defeating the Vietnamese trio of Do Thi Anh Nguyet, Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhi and Phuong Thao Hoang 6-2. The Indians had defeated Japan by an identical margin in the quarterfinal. Atanu expressed happiness with the result as the men had failed to win medals in Jakarta 2018 and Incheon 2014. "Finally, I am not going home empty-handed. It feels amazing, we fought like warriors," he said.
Asked whether they were intimidated facing South Koreans who are Olympic gold medallists, Atanu replied: "I don't think like that because in the stadium matches, everyone's the same, everyone has the same capability. You can get tense and sometimes make a little mistake and it will cost you. Or you can make some good shots and you can win the match." Atanu hoped that he would be able to win a quota place for the Paris Olympics at the upcoming Asian Championships. "Our second chance is the world ranking meet and our third chance will be the Stage 3 of next year's World Cup. We have three more chances but it will be tough," he added.
Women's team member Kaur said strong winds and rain on Friday morning made sighting the target difficult. "But as a team, we just focused on ourselves. It was a very important medal for us. We have been practising for a lot of years."
Talking about the performance of both teams, Indian archery's high-performance director Sanjeeva Kumar Singh, said: "We have been having a very systematic training plan. From the grassroots level, we are tapping talents, we are having a domestic circuit with four zones where people are getting a chance to come and play. The youngsters are getting a chance to rub shoulders with the seniors, and they are winning and this is giving them confidence. The junior talent is rising and therefore they are catching up with the seniors."
