Dhiraj Bommadevara left the Antalya World Cup (Stage 3) with two gold medals — and Indian recurve archery with one of its best days in years.
First came the recurve mixed-team title alongside Kumkum Mohod. The Indian pair beat top-seeded South Korea 5–1 in the final, taking the opening sets 37–36 and 37–36 before sealing the match with a 39–39 shared set. It was India's first recurve mixed-team gold at a World Cup stage in four years.
Bommadevara then returned to the line for the men's individual final against Lee Woo Seok — a Paris Olympic medalist — and won it 6–4, having earlier beaten Germany's Moritz Wieser by the same scoreline in the semi-final. He becomes only the third Indian man to win an individual recurve title at a World Cup stage, and the results booked his place at this year's World Cup Final, his third such qualification.
Beating Korea in a recurve final — twice over, in effect, across the team and individual matches — is the kind of result Indian archery has chased for a generation. For the juniors in Punjab's camps, Bommadevara's weekend is proof that the ceiling keeps moving.
Source & further reading: The Bridge — Antalya Archery World Cup: Dhiraj Bommadevara stuns Olympic medalist; wins two gold medals (14 June 2026).
Featured photo: Astro37x (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.
