Okazaki. The Indian Mixed Compound Archery team won the gold medal in the Asian Games 2026 after a thrilling match. The Indian pair of Rajesh Jadhav and Chikitha Taniparthy defeated South Korea's Park Jungeun and Choi Yeonghee in a shoot-off in the final. The scheduled match ended in a 157-157 draw, after which India won the shoot-off.
With this victory, India also secured the quota for the compound mixed team event of the Los Angeles Olympics 2028. The compound mixed team event will be included in the Olympic program for the first time.
This is Chikitha Taniparthy's second gold medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games after the women's team won gold. With this gold, India has won a total of 54 medals in the competition including eight gold. These include 21 silver and 25 bronze medals.
India maintained pressure from the beginning
In the final, Chikitha and Rajesh started with the 10-ring target. After the initial rotation, the South Korean pair also equalized and made the score 20-20.
After this, India took advantage of Park's target of 9 runs. Chikitha and Rajesh scored 10 consecutive points and India took a 40-39 lead at the end of the first end.
In the second end also, Indian archers hit accurate targets. Scoring 10-10 points in the first four shots, India increased its lead and made the score 80-78 at the half of the match.
Korea made a comeback, but India remained ahead
In the third end, South Korea tried to make a comeback in the match. The Indian pair also responded with two 10s and made the score 100-98.
However, at the end of the third end, two of the Indian archers' targets remained outside the 10-ring, allowing Korea to reduce the gap. India was leading 118-117 and both the teams had four arrows left.
The whole match changed in the last two arrows
The match became very exciting in the last end. South Korea's Park and Choi scored 10 points each on both their arrows. From India's side, Chikitha responded to the pressure by scoring 10 points and Rajesh also scored 10 points.
After this, India had two arrows left and the team was on a slight lead. South Korea scored a perfect 20 points in the last two arrows and took the score to 157.
India needed 20 points in the last two overs to tie the match. Chikitha scored 9 points, but under pressure, Rajesh hit a perfect 10 to make the score 157-157.
10 vs 9 won gold in shoot-off
After the tie, the shoot-off started. Chikitha scored 10 points with her arrows and Park also maintained the tie with 10 points.
After this Rajesh again scored 10 points. Now South Korea's hopes rested on Choi's last arrow. Choi could score only 9 points.
With this, the Indian pair won the mixed compound team gold medal by winning the shoot-off.
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