Indian recurve men make first world championship final in 14 years

Atanu Das, Pravin Ramesh Jadhav and Tarundeep Rai of India beat the Netherlands’s Steve Wijler, Sjef van den Berg and Rick van der Ven in a semifinal shoot-off to book a spot in the recurve men’s team gold medal match at the 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.

The last time the Indian recurve men’s team made the final at the world championships was in Madrid in 2005. Tarundeep was part of that squad, which finished runner-up.

“We’ve actually worked very hard,” said Atanu. “We came to the Netherlands 10 days before the world championships, we practised in Breda and that helped us a lot to win. We understand the wind and all conditions. We just enjoyed ourselves and gave our best.”

The Indian team beat Norway in the first round in ’s-Hertogenbosch and then upset sixth-seeded Canada to make the quarterfinals and qualify a place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

A second upset, of third-ranked Chinese Taipei, followed – before India met the hosts in the semifinals.

The two teams alternated set wins, India closing with a 57 to force a tiebreak. In the shoot-off, the Indian team shot 29 – and the Netherlands 28.

“We are going to enjoy and give our best. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for so long, it’s the top moment [for us],” added Atanu.

India’s opponent in the gold medal match will be China, who upset first seed Korea in their semifinal, 6-2.

Korea will shoot for gold in the recurve women’s team competition. The Korean women have won 13 of the 20 world titles in the category since the nation’s competitive emergence in 1979. They face Chinese Taipei – a team that has never won a world title – for gold in ’s-Hertogenbosch.

China and Great Britain will meet in the recurve women’s team bronze medal match.

All the finalists have already secured team quota places for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships take place on 10-16 June in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.