For Indian compound archery, which gobbled all five gold medals on offer at the Hangzhou Asian Games, winning another mixed team event gold would have been more of a routine affair three years on. The mixed event, though, was anything but routine at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
It stood out because of what it carried: an early berth to the 2028 Los Angeles Games, where compound will make its Olympic debut with the mixed team event.
And carrying a special placard were Chikitha Taniparthi and Sahil Jadhav. The Indian duo secured an early Olympics quota for the country by winning the mixed team gold on Wednesday. Chikitha and Sahil held off a spirited comeback by Koreans Park Jungyoon and Choi Yonghee to win the final in a shoot-off, after scores were tied at 157-157.
It got a bit too tight and tense towards the end, and the release of emotions reflected that.
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Dave Cousins, the American 1999 and 2003 world champion roped in as India’s chief compound coach earlier this year, put his hand on his chest and whispered an “Oh My God!” towards his Korean counterpart. Jadhav and Chikitha, on their Asian Games debut, hugged each other – the former more animatedly compared to the ice-cool latter. They sensed what they had achieved: not just another top Asian Games finish, but one with an added Olympic reward.
That the Koreans were gunning especially for this event was evident from their run in Japan. They had shot a world-record score of 160 in the elimination rounds and 159 in the semi-final against China.
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India, meanwhile, just about managed to get past Thailand in their semi-final. Kanoknapus Kaewchomphu and Peerawat Rattanapongkiat began shaky with a 9 and 8 in the first set where they trailed by two points. They got level with the Indians over the next couple of sets, with scores of 38 and 40. After a nervy 9 from India that could have made things tricky, Jadhav’s brilliant shooting under scoreboard pressure kept things steady. Even as the Thais shot the perfect 40 in the final set, the Indians snuck into the final by a point (156-155).
They turned up hot in the final, though.
The Indians opened it with a couple of 10s. So did the Koreans. Indians backed it up with another two 10s. The first 9 by Park Jungyoon put the Koreans behind by a point after the first end.
Another slight drop came from the Korean arrow in the second set, this time from Choi Yonghee. The Indian arrows in contrast were only flying high, and only pinning 10s as the lead widened to two points at the 8-arrow halfway stage.
Park dropped another 9, before Chikitha and Jadhav swayed for the first time in the contest, shooting two straight 9s. With the lead trimmed to just one point heading into the final end, things suddenly got close.
The Koreans let loose four 10s for a perfect score in the final set. Chikitha hit 9 off her final shot while Jadav hit 10 off his last. And the contest, which seemed to be heading India’s way, was now left to the fine margins of a shoot-off.
Both the women struck 10 in the one-arrow winner-takes-all shoot-off. After Jadav did his bit with a 10, Choi, who would likely have sealed the deal for Korea with an inner 10 (X), misfired a 9.
And thus, it was India that sealed the deal. And with it, a quota to the Olympics.
