~ 17-year-old became the first Indian to win an Asian Games individual recurve title. "VAN" (Hemant Kumar Sharma - Aichi-Nagoya, Japan - 03.10.2026) :: Kumkum Mohod won the individual gold medal in the women’s recurve archery event at the Asian Games 2026 on Saturday, securing an LA 2028 Olympics quota for India in the event. The 17-year-old Indian archer defeated the Republic of Korea’s Oh Yejin in a shoot-off after the gold-medal contest finished level at 5-5 at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Multipurpose Square in Aichi. Oh Yejin shot an eight in the shoot-off before Kumkum responded with a 10 to take the title. Kumkum became the first Indian to win an individual recurve archery gold at the Asian Games. Tarundeep Rai, who won silver at Guangzhou 2010, was previously the only Indian to medal in an individual recurve event. Kumkum capped her campaign at Aichi-Nagoya with three medals, having also helped India win the women’s recurve team gold and combined with Dhiraj Bommadevara for mixed team silver on Friday. By reaching the individual final, Kumkum also helped India obtain a women’s recurve quota for LA 2028. The finalists in both the men’s and women’s individual recurve events at Aichi-Nagoya obtain one quota place each for their respective countries. As National Olympic Committees (NOC) have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective teams at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation at the LA Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at LA28. Kumkum had beaten South Korea’s reigning world champion and Olympic medallist Kang Chaeyoung 6-3 in the quarter-finals before overcoming the People’s Republic of China’s Zhu Jingyi 6-2 in the semi-finals. In the final, Oh Yejin won the opening set 29-27 before the second was shared 29-29. Kumkum responded with a perfect 30 to take the third but trailed 5-3 after losing the fourth. Needing to win the fifth to stay in contention, Kumkum shot another perfect 30 to force the shoot-off before sealing gold with a 10. Inputs - Olympics
On Sat, Oct 3, 2026