On the upswing: Indian archers now facing South Koreans on own terms

“Earlier, if we had to playa Korean, we'd think, baap re, bahut marenge (we'll be beaten heavily).” This is Purnima Mahato, former India archer and current coach, summing up the mentality of the country’s recurve archers visa-vis South Korean opponents in the past.

- Rutvick Mehta

“I wasn't intimidated... I thought no matter who came up against me, be ita Korean, Ihad to shoot my best.” This is teen Sharvari Shende, after beating two Koreans to become the U-I8 world youth recurve champion in ‘August.

This generational arc not only reflects a subtle mindset shift in the current crop of Indians but also a gradual decline in the aura of invincibility around recurve archery’s most intimidating force. Korea, make no mistake, are still up thereas the benchmark, yet the gap — in the minds of Indians at least —is no longer as wide.

‘Atthe recent Asian Championships in Dhaka, India took three of the five recurve gold medals to Korea’s one. That included the men’s team beating Korea in the final to break their title stranglehold and Ankita Bhakat defeating Paris Games silver medallist Nam Su-hyeon in the women’s final.

Korea were without their top three men. Still, defeating their next-in-line was an upbeat start for someone like 21-year-old Rahul Pawariya.

Indians have also bettered their best in the last couple of years. The men took the 2024 World Cup Stage 1 gold defeating a strong Korean unit comprising Olympic champions Kim Je-deok and Kim Woo-jin. At the 2023 World Cup

Final, Dhiraj Bommadevara stunned Kim, a five-time Olympic champion. Add Sharvari's junior silverware going past Koreans in the semis and final to the list. These may be sporadic results, but could bea sign of a narrowing gap.