Indian men's and women's recurve teams win bronze at the fourth stage of the 2023 Archery World Cup in Paris
Today at the ongoing Archery World Cup 2023 Stage 4 in Paris, the Indian recurve squad won two bronze medals following yesterday's impressive achievements by the Indian compound archers. In the bronze medal playoff matches, the men's team with Dhiraj Bommadevara, Atanu Das, and Tushar Shalke defeated Spain 6-2 while the women's team with Bhajan Kaur, Simranjeet Singh, and Ankita Bhagat defeated Mexico 5-4.
After the individual qualifying round, the recurve men's team earned 2034 points, placing them second overall behind Korea. The trio had a bye in the first round and defeated Mexico (6-2) in the next. They went on to defeat Canada (5-1) before being defeated in the semifinals by Chinese Taipei (0-6) who were the 11th seed.
Particularly in the second series, which saw Chinese Taipei shoot 58 points while the Indian squad could only muster 47, the performance was appalling. The momentum went away from India as a result, and they ultimately lost the semifinal match. However, the Indian three recovered to defeat Spain for the bronze medal (6-2) after trailing (0-2) at the end of the first series.
The Indian women's recurve team, on the other hand, was seeded sixth and, like their male counterparts, received a bye in the first round. They defeated Italy (5-1) and Japan (6-2) in the following two rounds to go to a matchup with Chinese Taipei, the seventh-seeded team. And like the men's squad, the women's team lost by a score of 0–6.
The bronze medal match against Mexico took place a short while later. Mexico won the first two games to gain a commanding lead (4-0), but the Indian team did not give up and maintained composure, winning the following two games and also the shootout to set up a memorable victory (5-4).