India’s women’s recurve archery team relied on mental composure and adherence to their training process to overcome South Korea 5-3 in the Asian Games 2026 final and end the country’s 44-year dominance in the event, archer Kirti Sharma said.
Kirti, who teamed up with Ankita Bhakat and Kumkum Mohod in the gold-medal winning trio on Friday, said the Indian archers remained focused on their own performance rather than their opponents in the high-pressure final.
“We were not thinking about our opponents. We were just focused on our own performance and following the process we went through during training,” Kirti told SAI media in Japan.
India had earlier defeated China 5-1 in the semifinals to set up the final against South Korea.
Kirti said controlling their emotions and maintaining faith in each other were crucial as the team sought to end South Korea’s long-standing hold over the event.
“All three of us had to control our emotions and believed in each other. We didn’t think about the results and just gave our 100 percent,” she said.
The Hazaribagh-based archer, who hails from Haryana and trains under coach Udham Singh at the SAI training centre in Hazaribagh, said the team was aware that even a minor mistake could change the course of the contest.
“We knew that our opponents can take the game away if we commit even a small mistake. But we stood strong and maintained the same intensity from the first arrow that we fired to the last one,” Kirti said.
India’s triumph came after the country’s compound archers had won the men’s, women’s and mixed team gold medals at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park.
Kirti said the unprecedented success of the compound teams had boosted the confidence of the recurve squad and provided additional motivation ahead of their event.
“Our confidence took a big boost after the compound events. The day we won three consecutive gold medals was a lucky day for India. It motivated us a lot. We wanted to emulate their feat,” she said.
“We were raring to go and could hardly wait for our event to start.”
The victory marked a significant moment for India’s women’s recurve archery team, which overcame South Korea in a final that demanded consistency and composure.
For Kirti, Ankita and Kumkum, the gold added to India’s strong showing in archery at the Asian Games.
(IANS Inputs)
