India Ends Korea’s Recurve Streak Then Loses Olympic Tickets

India’s women ended South Korea’s hold on the Asian Games recurve team title on Friday, then lost the mixed-team Olympic tickets to China on the last arrow. Kumkum Anil Mohod, Ankita Bhakat and Kirti Sharma won 5-3 at Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park, the first Indian gold in that event, on a day that also gave Lovlina Borgohain boxing gold on her 29th birthday.

The hockey final against China is still to come at 3:30 p.m. IST, with a Los Angeles 2028 place on the line. Two more boxing finals and a wrestling gold bout sit on the same afternoon card.

India Ends Korea’s 28-Year Recurve Streak

South Korea had taken every women’s team recurve gold at the Asian Games since 1998. Lee Yun-ji, Kang Chae-young and Oh Ye-jin were chasing an eighth straight title and left with silver. The Indian trio, coached by Udham Singh, had beaten China 5-1 in the semi-final to reach a first Asiad final in the event.

Gusts in Okazaki pulled both sides around. Lee and Kirti each put a 7 on the target in the opening set, and the first two sets finished level, 54-all and 56-all. India then won the third 55-51 after the Koreans closed with three 8s, and the match sat at 4-2.

THE WOMEN’S TEAM FINAL, SET BY SET

Judges reviewed Kirti’s first arrow of the fourth set, changing an 8 to a 9. An 8 would have forced a shoot-off. Mohod, 17, then landed a 10, India tied the set, and the extra set point ended the match 5-3. Recurve team sets are six arrows, two from each archer, with two points for a win and one for a tie, first to five.

Korea still arrives at the Olympics as the women’s team standard, with 10 straight Olympic golds through Paris 2024. The Asian Games run that began in 1998 stopped in Aichi Prefecture, about 50 km south-east of Nagoya.

The Olympic Tickets Left on China’s Last Arrow

A couple of hours later Mohod was back on the line with Dhiraj Bommadevara in the mixed recurve final. They had come from 1-3 down to beat Japan’s Nanami Asakuno and Junya Nakanishi 5-3 in the semi-final after Nakanishi’s last arrow was a 7. China were waiting, and the gold carried the continental mixed-team prize for Los Angeles: one women’s and one men’s quota for the winning NOC.

Zhu Jingyi and Li Mengqi took the first two sets 38-34 and 37-35. India stole the third 37-36 when Li dropped a 7. The fourth set finished 37-37 after Li, needing a 10 to avoid a shoot-off, put the last arrow in the gold. China won 5-3. The silver is India’s first medal in mixed recurve, on the programme since 2018, and it does not come with the Olympic places.

Because quotas are earned by a country, rather than individual athletes, National Olympic Committees have final authority to select which athletes will represent their delegation at LA28.

World Archery, Nagoya, 30 September 2026

That is the catch the Korea gold does not solve. An Asian Games title in women’s team recurve is a landmark in a sport India has long owned with the compound bow. The mixed gold was the one Friday morning result that moved two named places on the Los Angeles grid, among 128 archers, 64 per gender. India will have to take those recurve tickets later, through worlds, continental events, or the final qualifier.

The Compound Sweep Already Sent Quotas to Los Angeles

India is not empty-handed on the archery Olympic list. On 30 September the compound teams swept all three compound team titles at the same Okazaki square, and the mixed gold of Chikitha Taniparthi and Sahil Rajesh Jadhav was the first compound mixed-team quota awarded for LA28, where the event makes its Olympic debut.

That final finished 157-157 before a 20-19 shoot-off. Taniparthi and Jadhav both shot 10s; Korea’s Choi Yonghee answered with a 9. The women had beaten China 238-234, a score that equalled the world record for a 24-arrow compound women’s team match, with Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Prithika Pradeep clean on 10s. The men edged China 238-237 after trailing into the last end. Dave Cousins is the head coach.

Jadhav, speaking after the mixed shoot-off, said the team had spent the build-up on communication in practice. “There have been many low points but when something like this happens, becoming a champion, it feels as though it was meant to happen.” The NOC, not the pair, holds those two compound places. Recurve still has to be earned on a separate track.

Birthday Gold for Lovlina Against China’s Bao

At Nishio Gymnasium, Lovlina Borgohain turned 29 and beat China’s Bao Ziyi 5-0 in the women’s 75kg final. Four judges had it 29-28 and one 30-27. She edged the first round 3-2, then took the second 4-1 and kept the third. It is India’s first Asian Games boxing gold of these Games, and she is only the second Indian woman to win one, after M.C. Mary Kom’s flyweight title at Incheon in 2014, a 12-year gap.

LOVLINA’S ROAD TO THE 75KG TITLE

• Quarter-final: Beat Seong Suyeon of South Korea 5-0.
• Semi-final: Beat world champion Natalya Bogdanova of Kazakhstan 3-2, the first Indian woman in back-to-back Asiad boxing finals.
• Hangzhou final: Silver in the same class after losing to China’s Li Qian.
• Tokyo Games: Olympic bronze, plus the 2023 world title at 75kg.

The gold is India’s 12th of the Aichi-Nagoya Games. A running count after the bout put the total at 70 medals, 12 gold, 24 silver and 34 bronze, with India sixth on the table and two boxing finals still unboxed. Indian boxers have six medals locked at these Games already, including bronzes for Priya Ghanghas (60kg), Kapil Pokhariya (90kg) and Narender Berwal (+90kg). The Guangzhou 2010 team remains the high-water mark for volume, with nine boxing medals, two of them gold.

What a Hockey Gold Would Buy India

The women’s hockey final against defending champions China is at 3:30 p.m. IST (19:00 in Kakamigahara). The winner takes the Asian title and a direct Los Angeles place, because the FIH system uses the Asian Games as a continental qualifier. The federation’s own preview of the medal round put it without dressing: continental champions earn direct berths and skip the early-2028 qualification tournaments.

INDIA AT THE WOMEN’S ASIAN GAMES, SELECTED FINALS

That 1982 title is India’s only women’s hockey gold in 1982, a 44-year wait. China have four Asian Games golds, including Hangzhou, where they beat India 4-0 in the semi-final. This Chinese side scored 46 pool goals and conceded none, then needed a 4-2 shootout after a 0-0 draw with Japan in the last four. India beat South Korea 2-0 in the other semi-final, Ishika breaking the game open and captain Salima Tete adding the second. Sjoerd Marijne is chief coach.

A silver still leaves the long road through ranking events and the 2028 qualifiers. The men’s gold match is on Saturday, with India already through after a 4-3 semi-final win over Pakistan.

Sujeet Kalkal Beats Olympic Champion Kiyooka

At Nagoya City Inae Sports Center, Sujeet Kalkal reached the men’s freestyle 65kg final the hard way. He is the reigning Asian champion and a world under-23 title holder. The gold bout against Abdulmajid Kudiyev of Tajikistan is listed at 2:46 p.m. Yogeshwar Dutt (2014) and Bajrang Punia (2018) are the last Indians to win this class at the Asian Games.

SUJEET’S BOUTS ON FRIDAY

• Round of 16: Beat Sayed Omar Zazai of Afghanistan 13-3 by technical superiority.
• Quarter-final: Beat Abbas Ebrahimzadehsavadkouhi of Iran 10-0.
• Semi-final: Beat Olympic champion Kotaro Kiyooka of Japan 3-3 on criteria, after trailing 0-2, because his scoring moves counted higher (3-1).
• Final: Faces Kudiyev at 2:46 p.m.

The rest of the morning wrestling card went the other way. Dipanshi Phogat lost 0-10 to Japan’s Yui Susaki in women’s 50kg, then won her repechage 10-0 over Cambodia’s Samnang Dit and will wrestle Kazakhstan’s Zeinip Bayanova for bronze. Priya Malik went out 1-6 to Kyrgyzstan’s Aiperi Medet Kyzy at 76kg. Rajat Ruhal lost 3-8 to Kazakhstan’s Yedige Kassimbek at 125kg and is out.

Parveen and Panghal Have Gold Bouts Left

Parveen Hooda meets Olympic medallist Chen Nien-Chin of Chinese Taipei in the women’s 65kg final at 2:15 p.m. Ankush Panghal faces Minseong Kim of South Korea in the men’s 80kg final at 2:45 p.m. Both already have medals. Nethra Kumanan added a morning bronze in the women’s ILCA 6 dinghy. Vishnu Saravanan finished fourth in the men’s ILCA 7. Kashish Malik won her mixed virtual taekwondo round of 16, then lost 1-2 to Rita Bakisheva of Kazakhstan in the quarters.

STILL TO BE DECIDED ON FRIDAY

• Boxing: Hooda at 2:15 p.m., Panghal at 2:45 p.m.
• Wrestling: Kalkal’s gold bout at 2:46 p.m., Phogat’s bronze play-off later in the session.
• Hockey: India vs China, women’s final, 3:30 p.m. IST.
• Archery: Men’s recurve team of Bommadevara, Neeraj Chauhan and Yashdeep Bhoge were drawn against Iran in the semi-final, with bronze and gold matches behind it if they advance.

Track cycling still had the men’s madison, the keirin and Harshita Jakhar’s omnium on the infield timetable, and the canoe slalom kayak cross ran through time trials into finals for those who made it. Those results were not in at the time of the boxing and archery medals above.

The morning already split the ledger. India took Korea’s recurve crown and a boxing gold off China. China took the mixed-team Olympic tickets with Li’s last 10. The hockey match in Kakamigahara is the one Friday result that can still move a Los Angeles berth the same day.