Antalya, Jun 14 (PTI) India’s top recurve archer Dhiraj Bommadevara will look to end his anxious wait for a World Cup gold medal when he competes in the recurve mixed team final and men’s individual semifinals, here on Sunday.
The two events will be India’s only hope from the World Cup after the compound section returned empty handed.
The world No. 16 Dhiraj has come a long way since narrowly missing out on what would have been India’s first Olympic archery medal at the Paris Games, where he and Ankita Bhakat lost the bronze-medal playoff in the mixed team event.
Now, Dhiraj finds himself on the verge of a potential double podium finish at the Archery World Cup Stage 3.
Dhiraj will first team up with teenage sensation Kumkum Mohod in the recurve
mixed team final against a formidable South Korean pair of Oh Ye Jin and Kim Je Deok.
Dhiraj has won two World Cup bronze medals in mixed team events — with Ankita in 2024 and Bhajan Kaur in 2025 — but a gold has so far eluded him.
The challenge on Sunday will be stiff as Kim was part of South Korea’s gold medal-winning mixed team at the Tokyo Olympics alongside An San, while Oh featured in the Korean team that finished runners-up to China at the previous World Cup stage in Shanghai last month.
Though vastly less experienced than their Korean opponents, Dhiraj and Kumkum have shown remarkable composure this week.
Kumkum, in particular, displayed nerves of steel in Shanghai when she shot a match-winning 10 with the final arrow to help India clinch the women’s team gold alongside Deepika Kumari and Ankita Bhakat.
For Dhiraj and Kumkum, Sunday’s final will also mark India’s first recurve mixed team gold-medal match at a Archery World Cup since Antalya in 2022, when Ridhi and Tarundeep Rai defeated Great Britain’s Bryony Pitman and Alex Wise in a shoot-off.
After the mixed team final, Dhiraj will return to the shooting line for the men’s individual semifinals, where he faces Germany’s Moritz Wieser.
Should he cross that hurdle, the Indian will advance to his maiden World Cup final and could set up a clash against South Korea’s Lee Woo Seok, the Paris Olympics bronze medallist.
Dhiraj, who made his World Cup debut in 2021, has collected three World Cup bronze medals across the 2023, 2024 and 2025 seasons.
A gold on Sunday would mark the biggest achievement of his international career so far. PTI TAP DDV
