Hangzhou, China, October 5, 2023: India’s golden Games continued at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre on Thursday as the women and men notched a golden archery double in the compound team events.
In the women’s team event, India beat Hong Kong, China 231-220 in the quarter-finals, Indonesia 233-219 in the semi-finals and Chinese Taipei 230-229 in the final.
In the afternoon, the Indian men’s team completed a compound double by defeating Bhutan 235-221 in the last eight, Chinese Taipei 235-224 in the semi-finals and Korea 235-230 in the final.
In the men’s final, India’s last eight arrows all scored 10 to hold off the Koreans, who trailed by five points going into the eighth and last round but kept the pressure up with 10-10-10.
India’s men’s captain, Abhishek Verma, said the success could not be achieved only today – it had been a year-long process in which they had excelled in the world championships, world cup and other tournaments.
“We did very well in a number of tournaments during the entire year, so they gave us the confidence – and we take the confidence into the Asian Games and we don’t want to miss it. So, we are very focused now; we are very, you can say, in a line and we did the same thing which we previously did,” he said.
“Archery is an unpredictable game, so you cannot judge. You have to just follow the first to last arrow, be calm and have to follow the process. That is my main goal, just to calm down the boys – and they did it very well.”
Verma said India’s winning score of 235 was actually quite low, as they usually shot 237 or more in practice, so “this is not bad”, but the hard training and practice had seen them through.
The men’s team was comprised of Verma, Ojas Pravin Deotale and Prathamesh Samadhan Jawkar. Korea took the silver and Malaysia the bronze.
India’s triumphant women’s team was Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Gopichand Swami and Parneet Kaur. In the final, the scores were tied at 171 after 18 of the 24 arrows, and India finished with four straight 10s to win 230-229. Chinese Taipei took silver and Korea the bronze.