Xplorich
It took India’s top recurve archer Dhiraj Bommadevara 20 long years since picking up the bow to win a gold at the World Cup. And when he did that, he bagged a ‘double’ at the World Cup Stage-III at Antalya on Sunday.Pairing up for the first time this season, the 24-year-old Olympian Dhiraj and 17-year-old Kumkum Anil Mohod stunned the Korean duo of Kim Je-deok and Oh Ye-jin 5-1 (37-36, 37-36, 39-39) to win India’s first World Cup recurve mixed team gold medal match since Antalya 2022, when Ridhi and Tarundeep Rai ended on top.It was almost a perfect run for the duo who defeated Denmark 6-0, USA 6-2 and Germany 6-2 to book a place in Sunday’s final against Korea, who had won both Olympic mixed team gold medals since the event joined the Games at Tokyo 2020.Hours later, Dhiraj returned to the arena to tame Germany’s Moritz Wieser 6-4 (2627, 28-28, 28-28, 3027, 28-23) in the individual semifinal and then South Korea’s Lee Woo Seok, the Paris Olympics bronze medallist, 7-3 (3029, 29-28, 27-27, 27-29, 30-29) in the summit clash.Dhiraj, who made his World Cup debut in 2021, thus improved upon his 2023, 24 and 25 World Cup bronze medal winning performances and made the season-ending World Cup Finals too.Rising star Kumkum was also part of the women’s recurve team which stunned 10-time Olympic champions Korea in the semifinals en route to gold in the Shanghai World Cup last month. Although more experienced Dhiraj was seen guiding Kumkum throughout the final, he later stated, “I learnt a lot from her fearless way of shooting.”
