The Indian pair of Ojas Deotale and Jyothi Surekha Vennam brought laurels to the country as they pipped the South Korean duo of So Chaewon and Joo Jaehoon to claim gold in the compound mixed-team event of archery on Tuesday, October 4. The final scoreline of 159-158 went in favour of the Indian dynamic duo and also defines the duel that transpired between the two pairs in the summit clash to clinch gold.
The gold medal bagged by the Indian pair is historic as it has pushed India's overall medal tally in the ongoing edition to 71 and helped the country to beat its previous Asiad record of clinching 70 medals - a feat that was achieved in the 18th edition of the continental event in Jakarta and Palembang in 2018 (Indonesia). It is also India's 16th gold medal in Hangzhou and it is the joint-most number of gold medals aggregated in a single edition by India in their Asian Games history.
This is India's first gold medal in archery at the 19th edition of the Asian Games and infuses optimism that there are more to come in the days to follow as several Indian archers have advanced to the finals of various disciplines. Jyothi and Ojas looked in superb rhythm during the semifinal clash too. They defeated Adel Zhexenbinova and Andrey Tyutyun of Kazakhstan by a margin of 159-154 in the semis to give themselves an opportunity to aim for gold.
Jyothi has been in red-hot form for some time now. She was a part of the Indian trio that won the first-ever gold for the country in the World Archery Championships after beating Mexico in the final in August. Jyothi led the pack featuring the young archer Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur with her stupendous performance and ensured the gold for India.
