Both the Indian men’s and women’s archery teams in the compound event made the final of the Asian Games but lost closely contested matches to South Korea, to take home the silver medal.
The Indian men’s team comprising Rajat Chauhan, Aman Saini, and Abhishek Verma made the perfect start by taking a four-point lead after hitting the target throughout the first set. The Koreans though soon fought back to level the scores at 114 after the second set.
In the third set, India were able to regain a slender lead of 172-170 going into the final set. In a tense final set, India managed to hold on to a three-point lead heading into the final three shots. In a dramatic twist, at the end of the fourth set, the scores were tied at 229 and the match went into a shoot-off. The shoot-off was just as dramatic as both teams ended up with 29 out of 30 points. However, the gold was awarded to the Koreans as they hit the bull's eye with the first shot, thus making the difference.
Earlier in the day, the Indian women’s team comprising Muskan Kirar, Madhumita Kumari and Jyothi Surekha Vennam also lost the final narrowly against the Koreans with the final score of 228-231.
Much like the men’s team, India took an early two-point lead at the end of the first-set after scoring 59 out of the 60 available points.
The Koreans made a comeback in the second set to leave the scores level at 115 by the halfway mark. The third set continued to be neck and neck with both teams putting on a fantastic display. Both teams scored 58 points in the set to leave the scores at 177 apiece going into the final set.
In the final set, Korea took a slender one-point lead going into the final three shots. Needing three bulls-eyes to force a tie, India fell three points short of the 231-point total set by the Koreans.
Both the men's and women's teams had beaten Chinese Taipei in the semi-finals on Sunday to set up the title clash against South Korea.