Seventeen-year-old Kumkum Mohod won the women’s individual recurve gold at the Asian Games 2026 on October 3, beating South Korea’s Oh Yejin 6-5 in a shoot-off and completing a three-medal haul.
A shoot-off removes everything that came before it. After five sets the match was level at 5-5, and the title came down to a single arrow each: Oh Yejin shot an 8, and Mohod shot a 10.
Her three medals show the range of the week: a women’s recurve team gold with Ankita Bhakat and Kirti Sharma, a 5-3 win over South Korea in the final, a mixed team silver with Dhiraj Bommadevara, and then the individual gold.
The team result is the earlier landmark of the two. It is India’s first gold in the women’s recurve team event at the Asian Games.
In the men’s individual recurve event, Neeraj Chauhan beat fellow Indian Dhiraj Bommadevara 6-4 for bronze, so India won medals across several recurve events in a few days.
She had already won gold in the women’s recurve team event with Ankita Bhakat and Kirti Sharma, who beat South Korea 5-3 in the final.
That team gold was India’s first in the women’s recurve team event at the Asian Games.
Mohod also won silver in the mixed team event, partnering Dhiraj Bommadevara, on Friday, October 2.
In the men’s individual recurve event, Neeraj Chauhan won bronze by beating fellow Indian Dhiraj Bommadevara 6-4 in an all-Indian bronze medal match.
President Droupadi Murmu and the Sports Minister congratulated Mohod, according to reports, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the archers’ recurve medals.
South Korea’s Oh Yejin took the silver medal, according to The Korea Times.
The Asian Games 2026 are being held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, from September 19 to October 4.
Recurve is the style of bow used in Olympic archery, and recurve matches are shot at a target 70 metres away.
Archery target (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, public domain