India's compound archers bagged all the medals on offer as the country topped the medals tally of the Asia Cup Stage 2 World Ranking Tournament with seven gold, five silver and two bronze in Tashkent on Friday, although the continental showpiece saw a depleted field, without heavyweights Korea.
The compound archers made a clean sweep in the men's and women's section to have a share of five gold, two silver and two bronze. In the hunt for all 10 gold medals, India missed out on complete domination with the recurve archers losing three finals, all against their Chinese rivals. Overall, the recurve archers had a share of two gold and three silver to propel India to the top spot in final standings with 14 medals.
Recurve hit-and-miss against China
Mrinal Chauhan, who topped the qualification in men's recurve individual section, lost to Wang Baobin 2-6 (29-30, 29-29, 27-28, 26-26). Two points separated the 19-year-old Indian from Baobin who took a decisive lead after winning the first and third sets by slender margins.
Sangeeta, the fourth-seeded Indian, squandered a 3-1 cushion and shot a wayward six in the fourth set to go down to her lower-ranked Chinese rival Wu Jiaxin 3-7 (27-26, 27-27, 26-27, 24-27, 26-30).
The recurve women's team of Sangeeta, Madhu Vedwan and Tanisha Verma lost to their Chinese counterparts 0-6 (52-56, 47-52, 51-52) in a lopsided final.
The recurve archers finally managed two gold medals when the men's team and mixed pair teams won their respective finals against Chinese opponents.
Mrinal Chauhan, Tushar Shelke and Jayanta Talukdar outplayed China 5-1 (57-54, 54-54, 54-51) in the men's team final. The mixed team duo of Chauhan and Sangeeta overcame a scare from China before winning 5-4 (36-37, 39-39, 37-36, 37-37, 20-18).
The ���� Recurve Team also joins the Victory Club at the 2023 Asia Cup- Stage 2⃣��
Take a look at their medal tally ��
��for Recurve Mixed Team
��for Men's Recurve Team
��for Women's Recurve TeamCongratulations Team ����! Keep shining���� pic.twitter.com/DMFUJkWL7f
- SAI Media (@Media_SAI) May 5, 2023
Compound domination
India's compound archers showed the way in the morning session when the women's team of Parneet Kaur, Raginee Markoo and Pragati defeated Kazakhstan 232-223 to open India's gold tally. Abhishek Verma, Kushal Dalal and Amit followed suit by winning the men's compound team event against Hong Kong 233-226. The compound mixed team of Verma and Parneet Kaur then got the better of Kazakhstan 157-145 for a third gold.
Raginee beat teammate Pragati 144-144 (10*-10) by the thinnest of margins in the shoot-off in an all-Indian affair in the women's compound individual section. Parneet won the individual bronze to hand a clean sweep in the women's compound section. Parneet defeated Adel Zhexenbinova of Kazakhstan 143-141 by two points in the bronze playoff.
It's raining G��LD for Team ���� at the 2023 Asia Cup- Stage 2⃣
With 3⃣ ��, The ���� Compound Women's Team, Compound Men's Team & Compound Mixed Team kicked off the tournament on a great note!
Congratulations to everyone, Individual ��events to follow soon ���� pic.twitter.com/QBPRUfxVhY
- SAI Media (@Media_SAI) May 5, 2023
The compound men's individual final was also an all-Indian affair where multiple World Cup gold medallist Verma was challenged to the hilt by youngster Amit. But Verma used all his experience to edge out Amit 143-143 (10*-10) after hitting closer to the centre in a thrilling shoot-off finish. Dalal then completed a clean sweep for the men's compound archers when he pipped veteran Sergey Khristich of Kazakhstan 142-141 to bag the individual bronze.