Kumkum completes golden hat-trick as India’s archery stars shine

• Seventeen-year-old Kumkum Mohod won women’s individual recurve gold to complete a three-medal haul at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

• The Maharashtra archer also won team recurve gold and mixed pair silver, becoming the first Indian woman to win an Asian Games individual recurve medal.

• Her semi-final victory over China’s Jingyi Zhu also secured India an Olympic quota place for Los Angeles 2028.

The archery arena continued to produce unlikely stars for India, with 17-year-old Kumkum Mohod clinching her third medal — and second gold — on the concluding day of competition at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

The Maharashtra teenager kept her composure under pressure to edge South Korea’s Oh Yejin in a shootout for the yellow metal in the women’s individual recurve event on Saturday, 3 October.

The victory made Kumkum the first Indian woman to win an Asian Games medal in the individual recurve event. It capped a remarkable Games for the teenager, who had already won women’s team recurve gold with Ankita Bhakat and Kirti Sharma and mixed pair silver with Dhiraj Bommadevara on Friday.

Her performance in the team final, where she anchored India against South Korea despite being the youngest member of the side, had underlined the faith the team management had placed in her. Kumkum repaid that confidence in spectacular fashion in the individual event.

She had also secured an Olympic quota place for India for the Los Angeles 2028 Games earlier in the day — one of two available to the country — by reaching the semi-finals.

Kumkum booked her place in the last four by defeating China’s Jingyi Zhu 6-2. She took the opening set 28-27, with scores of 9, 10 and 9, before the two archers shared the second and third sets at 30-30 and 29-29 respectively.

With Kumkum holding a 4-2 lead, she edged Zhu 29-28 in the final set to seal the victory and assure herself of at least a silver medal.

Earlier, Kumkum had defeated reigning world champion Kang Chaeyoung 6-4 in the quarter-final, underlining the teenager’s composure against the world's best on her way to the final.