Okazaki, Oct 2 (IANS): Indian men’s recurve archery team settled for a silver medal in the final after going down to nine-time champions South Korea at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Multipurpose Square at the ongoing Asian Games here on Friday.
The Indian trio of Neeraj Chauhan, Yashdeep Bhoge, and Dhiraj Bommadevara lost to the Korean powerhouse, featuring Kim Je Deok, Kim Woojin, and Lee Wooseok, in the title clash, 1-5 to settle for a silver as a historic gold slipped out of their hands.
This is India’s second consecutive Asian Games silver in the men’s recurve team event, with the team also losing to South Korea in the final at Hangzhou 2023. Olympian Bommadevara was part of that silver-medal-winning team as well.
The Indian archers found it hard to beat the Korean juggernaut and managed to tie only one set, while losing the other two. India and Korea shared a point each in the first set after the two shot 56 points from in the first set in six arrows.
However, the nine-time champions kept displaying their top performance and bagged the second set with a score of 57-40 as the Indian archers made a few errors.
With a 3-1 lead, Korea then went on to clinch the third set too with a score of 56-54 as they did not shoot anything less than nine in the final set, while India had a shot at seven in the final set.
The two teams started the final with a 1-1 tie in the first set. Both teams shot 56 points in the opening set as they nailed three 10s each. Indian archers had a strong chance to win the first set when they needed 28 from the final three arrows to go past Korea’s 56 tally. But they managed a 10, 8 and 9 to take 27 from those three and tie Korea.
The Koreans put on a stellar show in the second set when they hit four arrows for 10, while the Indians managed no arrows at 10. Yashdeep and Neeraj scored one shot at eight each, while Dhiraj went off the target and scored two eights as Korea bagged the second set 57-50.
With not much room for error in the final set, India took 28 points from the first three arrows in the third set, with Neeraj hitting a 10 and Yashdeep and Dhiraj scoring nines.
Korea replied with 28 as India were just alive, but Neeraj managed a seven on the fourth arrow of the set for India, while Yashdeep and Dhiraj hit nine and 10, respectively.
Korea needed 27 to win the set and the match, and they managed to get 28 from the final three arrows to win the set 56-54 and the match 5-1.
