Archery: Korea had their big guns but Dhiraj and Co had belief as they stun powerhouses for World Cup gold in Shanghai

They would hug each other and signal a victory sign to the coaching contingent in the stands after big names like Lee Wooseok, and two-time Olympic gold medallists Kim Je Deok and Kim Woojin, had been taken down.

The win was India’s maiden win over archery powerhouse Korea in the men’s team event at world level. It also meant that an Indian men’s Recurve team emerged champions for the first time at any Archery World Cup since 2010, when Rai along with Rahul Banerjee and Jayanta Talukdar had defeated Japan in the final in Shanghai.

“Match se pehle Korea hai, yeh nahi socha tha (We did not think much before that we will be facing Korea). We went with only one mindset that was to give our best. We kept discussing our strengths and how we can counter the rainy conditions. The communication among us was the key for each one of us and that’s what worked for us. Of course, such wins over Olympic champions give one confidence and we all would like to take it further,” said Bommadevara while speaking with the Indian Express from Shanghai.

The Indian recurve team with their medals and the coaching staff. (Special Arrangement)

With the 22-year-old super-archer being the only member from last year’s Asian Games silver medal winners in Shanghai, the Indians had qualified in second spot for the team event. While Bommadevara, who is the only Paris Olympics quota holder for India uptil now, had shot a qualification score of 693, 40-year-old Tarundeep Rai shot 684 with 27-year-old Praveen Jadhav hit 672 to help India finish with a total of 2049 behind Korea’s 2055.

Wins over Indonesia and Spain before a 5-1 win over Italy in the semi-finals meant that the Indians came into the final with confidence. The last time India had won a medal in a World Cup was the bronze at World Cup Stage 3 in Paris.

Here, the Indians tied the first set 57-57. The second saw the Indian team take the two set points on offer with a score of 57 as compared to 55 shot by the Koreans. Up by 3-1 in the final set, India shot a total of 55 as compared to Korea’s 53 to pocket the historic gold medal.

While it was drizzling in Shanghai during the final, the Indian team hit six inner tens as compared to only one by the Koreans to become champions.

“Our first thought going into the final was that we don’t have to try something new even if we are facing the Koreans. Our mentality was to shoot as we did in practice. Release, follow through and timing of shots went perfectly for us today. Pure confidence se maara (We shot with full confidence). It was my first World Cup gold and to win against Korea makes it more special for each of us,” said Jadhav.

While the Indian recurve women’s team had earlier scored wins over Koreans twice in 2013 in World Cups, Sunday’s title win for the Indian men’s team also meant that India has climbed to the second spot behind Korea in the world rankings.

With the final Paris Olympic Qualification tournament to be held in Antalya, Turkey from June 14 to 17, the Indian team will also have a chance to qualify through world rankings. They can collect points in the next two World Cups with two team spots on offer for Paris, which don’t make it through qualifiers.

With double Olympics medal winning South Korean coach Baek Woong Ki coaching the Indian recurve team in Sonepat, the archers have been reaping benefits of his expertise too.

“If we see the qualification scores, Dhiraj’s 693 was one of the firsts for Indian recurve archers. With him breaking the 690 points barrier, it will instill more confidence in other archers as well. Right now, our archers have an average of 9.4 with Koreans leading the world average with 9.5. But here in Shanghai, we saw our team improving their average. For a natural archer like Dhiraj, some finetuning in his technique needs to be done apart from making some adjustments for other archers in follow through and bow control in the run up to the qualifiers and the two World Cups,” said Sanjeeva Kumar Singh, India’s high performance director.

While the Indian mixed team of Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat won the bronze medal winning 6-0 (35-31, 38-35, 39-37) over Mexicans Matias Grande and Alejandra Valencia, 29-year-old Deepika Kumari won silver in the women’s individual recurve final. Though she suffered a 0-6 loss against World champion and Asian games champion Lim Sihyeon of Korea in the final, Kumari had scored wins over two Korean archers on her way to the final.

After finishing 30th in qualification, the Jharkhand archer scored a 7-3 win over third seed German Katharina Bauer in the second round before registering wins over sixth seed Jeon Hunyoung of Korea in the quarters followed by a 6-0 win over Nam Suhyeon of Korea in the semis on Sunday.

It also meant that India topped the medals tally in Shanghai, hauling eight podiums including five gold, two silver and one bronze across compound-recurve events. “It’s a historic world cup for Indian archers. I would like to term it as our peak performance and we have to maintain it. To defeat a Korean team consisting of multiple Olympic champions and that too in the final means that we are on the right track for Paris Olympics. We put them under pressure under challenging conditions both in compound as well as recurve here in Shanghai and we would not be content with this result only,” concluded Singh.