Archery C'ships: Ankita surpasses Olympic medalist to hit gold

Dhaka: India's Ankita Bhakat secured a landmark victory by defeating Paris Olympics individual silver medallist Nam Su-hyeon of Korea 7-3 to capture the women’s recurve individual gold at the Asian Archery Championships here on Friday, IANS reported.

Ankita took the lead in the opening set with a tally of 29-27. However, the Korean archer came back to draw the second set. Ankita, who had a 3-1 lead, lost the third set 26-28 as Nam levelled the score 3-3 in the summit clash.

The Indian archer made a strong return in the penultimate set as she shot double 10s to reclaim the lead 5-3. In the final and fifth set, Ankita came out all guns blazing and was at her best form as she shot double 10s before culminating the match with 9 to accumulate 29 and secured the gold medal with a score of 7-3.

In the semifinal clash, Ankita outclassed five-time Olympian and fellow Indian Deepika Kumari 6-5 in a thrilling shoot-off. Ankita started the match on high and cruised to a 4-0 lead after the second set.

Meanwhile, the veteran Indian archer proved her class and staged a fightback to draw the third set before clinching the last two sets to level the match 5-5 after five sets. In the shoot-off, Ankita prevailed over her senior compatriot to book the final berth.

Earlier, Ankita had defeated top seed Jang Minhee to set up a meeting with teammate and five-time Olympian Deepika Kumari, who also impressed in her quarterfinal against Lee Gahyun, making it an all-Indian clash for a spot in the final.

In the second semifinal, India's Sangeeta, who continued her steady rise after previous success at the Tashkent 2023 Asia Cup, lost to Nam Su-hyeon 0-6. Meanwhile, she concluded her campaign in the recurve women’s individual event with a bronze medal against Deepika.

Sangeeta outclassed Deepika 6-5 in the shoot-off to win the bronze medal for the country.