India's Ridhi Phor and Tarundeep Rai won the gold medal in recurve mixed team at the Archery World Cup in Antalya, Turkey on Sunday. The duo beat Great Britain's Bryony Pitman and Alex Wise in a shoot-off. This was India's second gold at the season-opening World Cup, a day after the men's compound team of Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan and Aman Saini won their final.
The Indians came back from losing the first set and the final was level on 4-4 with the tiebreaker needed. In the shoot-off, India earned a narrow win (18-17) to claim gold. Seeded fifth, Rai and Phor had earlier defeated Spain 5-3 to reach the final.
Incidentally for the 38-year-old Rai, who won the Asian Games silver in Guangzhou 2010, this was his first-ever mixed team medal in the World Cup. As for 17-year-old Ridhi, this was her first ever World Cup medal as the duo showed amazing character to come back twice and seal the issue in the shoot-off with two 9s. The British duo of Bryony Pitman and Alex Wise shot 9 and 8.
A tremendous performance gives India the gold medal in Antalya 🥇#ArcheryWorldCup pic.twitter.com/iHBDmtewxQ
- World Archery (@worldarchery) April 24, 2022
It was a disastrous start for the new-look Indian pair as they shot the red-ring twice (8-8) to lose the first set by two points. However, Rai and Ridhi were able to level the score in the second set, thanks to two below-par rounds (7-8) by the British pair.
The third set was a high-scoring affair as Rai and Ridhi shot 39/40, but their rivals went ahead by a point, drilling in a perfect 40/40 with two Xs (closest to the centre) to push the Indian duo behind once again. Not ready to give up, Rai and Ridhi shot two 10s to put pressure on their rivals, who misfired in the red ring once, to seal the match.
(with inputs from PTI)