New Delhi. Indian recurve archer Dheeraj Bommadevara on Sunday created a history for which Indian archery was waiting for a long time. World number 10 archer Dheeraj won the World Cup final gold medal by defeating world number 20 archer Nakanishi Junya of Japan 10-9 in a thrilling shoot-off. With this he became the first Indian male recurve archer to win a gold medal in the final of this prestigious tournament.
The fight between Dheeraj and Nakanishi was very close. After the scheduled five sets, both the players were tied at 5-5. After this the match reached shoot-off, where Dheeraj won 10-9 by hitting brilliantly under pressure.
Earlier, Dheeraj had made it to the finals by winning the quarter-finals and semi-finals. In the final, he defeated Nakanishi 6–5 (28–28, 28–29, 29–28, 28–30, 28–27).
This achievement of Dheeraj also ended the wait of 16 years for Indian men's recurve archery. Earlier, Jayant Talukdar had won the bronze medal in the World Cup final in Edinburgh in 2010. After him, now Dheeraj has given India the final gold in the men's recurve category.
The special thing is that Dheeraj had returned in the 2023 and 2024 tournaments without winning a medal. This time he made a great comeback and performed consistently strong from the quarter finals to the finals.
Dheeraj is the second Indian to win individual gold in the World Cup final. Dola Banerjee won the women's individual title in Dubai in 2007. After him, no Indian had won a gold medal in the World Cup final.
Whereas among Indian archers, Deepika Kumari has the most medals in the World Cup finals. She has participated in this competition eight times and has five silver and one bronze medals to her name.
After the historic victory in the World Cup final, Dheeraj will now leave directly for the Asian Games to be held in Japan. He will lead the Indian recurve team there.
In the last Asian Games in Hangzhou, Dheeraj had lost in the quarterfinals of the individual event, although he had won a silver medal for India in the team event. Now after the gold in the World Cup final, his eyes will be on achieving another big achievement in the Asian Games.
