With the Asian Games women’s recurve team final balanced on a knife edge, 17-year-old Kumkum Mohod drew her bow, adjusted for the swirling wind and sent her final arrow into the 10-ring. It was the shot that sealed one of the biggest upsets in Indian archery history.
Kumkum Mohod, Ankita Bhakat and Kirti Sharma stunned South Korea 5-3 on Friday to win the women’s recurve team gold at the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya, handing India its first Asian Games gold medal in the event and ending Korea’s remarkable seven-title winning streak. For a sport where Korea has long represented the highest benchmark, the result carried significance well beyond one final. The Korean women’s recurve team had won seven consecutive Asian Games titles since 1998 and arrived with a formidable reputation. World Archery had also documented India’s growing ability to challenge Korea earlier in 2026, with Indian archers defeating Korea in World Cup competition before the Asian Games.
Yet on Friday at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Multipurpose Square, India refused to treat history as destiny. Guess which was harder for Kumkum Mohod on Friday afternoon: speaking to the media or compensating for swirling winds to hit the 10 ring, about the size of a compact disc, from 70 metres away with the last shot of an archery match and the chance to make history at stake?
The 17-year-old, a firm believer in visualisation, had spent the previous year imagining decisive moments. She had rehearsed match-winning shots in her mind. What she had not imagined was the attention that would follow. “ Aap logo se baat karna (Talking to you guys),” comes the hesitant answer. “ Itne saare log ek saath kabhi nahi dekhe (I’ve never seen so many people together at once),” Kumkum would say shyly. The nerves were understandable. India were facing a Korean side that included Olympic team champion Kang Chae Young, alongside Lee Yun-ji and Oh Ye-jin. The pressure of the occasion was particularly significant for the Korean team, which was attempting to extend a streak that had lasted across generations.
India, however, had its own reasons to believe. Ankita Bhakat brought the experience of the Paris 2024 Olympic cycle, while Kirti Sharma and Kumkum represented a younger generation with considerably less baggage against Korea. The final itself reflected the tight margins. In the opening set, a seven from Kirti threatened to put India under early pressure. Kumkum responded with an inner 10 to help India secure a tied set. The second set again required the teenager to produce under pressure. After Kirti shot two eights, Kumkum found the 10 when India needed it most.
The team also showed tactical flexibility. “We worked very well as a team. At the start of the final, I was shooting first and Kirti was shooting second. After she shot a 7 she was a little nervous. So we just switched the order for the second series to make her go first. It’s very rare that you change the order in the middle of a match but that’s the kind of confidence we have in each other,” Ankita says. “Kumkum is someone who is a really strong shooter. We keep her at the end because we know that when we need a big shot, she can hit a 10.”
That trust became the story of the final. Kirti opened one crucial series with a 10, while India accumulated 55 points to take two set points from the defending champions. Korea fought back and entered the final set needing a win to force a shoot-off. The Koreans established a two-point advantage after the first rotation, putting India under immense pressure. Korea managed only 26 in its second rotation. India capitalised. After Kirti’s final arrow was upgraded to a nine, Kumkum stepped up for the shot that would decide the gold. The wind had begun moving from nine o’clock towards three o’clock. Kumkum adjusted her aim to compensate.
The celebrations were initially subdued. There were fist bumps rather than wild scenes, while coach Udham Singh screamed in celebration. For Kirti, however, the emotion was impossible to hide. “I had tears in my eyes. It is my first gold medal for India,” Kirti would say later. The victory also represented a psychological shift. World Archery had already highlighted India’s progress against Korea earlier this season, including a 5-1 victory over a Korean mixed team at the Antalya World Cup involving Kumkum and Dhiraj Bommadevara.
For Kumkum, the belief had been there long before the final arrow. “I grew up watching Korean archers. Everyone told me they were the best in the world. You watched them to study how to shoot,” she recalls. Kirti, meanwhile, insisted that fear was never part of India’s approach. “Koi dar nahi tha (There was no fear),” asserts Kirti from Haryana, whose father took a Rs. 60,000 loan to pay for her first bow. “We weren’t thinking about Korea or China (who the team beat earlier in the semifinals). We just wanted to do our best. If we did our best, we were confident about doing well,” Kirti says.
Kumkum’s mindset was even more ambitious. “He was saying, ‘Introducing the Korean team – 10-time Olympic champion Korea. At that time I was thinking, they might be Olympic champions but we are going to be Asian Games champion,” she says. The result also continues a strong 2026 season for Indian women’s recurve archery. India had already defeated Korea and China on the World Cup circuit, with World Archery describing the Shanghai women’s team gold as India’s first World Cup gold in the event since Paris 2021.
India’s Asian Games archery gold was not simply an upset. It was a statement that the psychological distance between Indian and Korean recurve archery has narrowed. For years, Korea’s dominance made a victory over its women’s team appear almost improbable. Friday’s final changed that narrative. India did not win because Korea suddenly stopped being a powerhouse. India won because three archers stayed composed through pressure, adapted their strategy during the match and trusted their youngest shooter when the final arrow mattered most.
The most telling image of the final was therefore not the podium. It was Kumkum Mohod standing 70 metres from the target, adjusting for the wind and calmly finding the 10-ring. “I’d visualised this exact moment the whole of last year. I knew I was going to hit it. I knew we were going to be Asian Games champions, “she says. This was India’s first Asian Games women’s recurve team gold. And for Kumkum, Ankita and Kirti, it was the arrow that turned an ambitious belief into Asian Games history.
