They had had enough of silver. They wanted gold.
In a performance that is bound to energise Indian archery hopes, the Indian women's compound team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur on Friday won the country's first ever gold medal in the World Archery Championships in Berlin.
Top seeds Mexico were no match for the Indians as they won 235-229 in a lop-sided final.
In the semifinals, India had scored a spirited upset of defending champions Colombia 220-216, after a 228-226 verdict over Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.
This is the first time Indian archers became world champions, since the nation’s debut in the event in Punta Ala (Italy) in 1981.
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"We were focused on the process. We had won enough silver medals and we had decided yesterday that we will win the gold. This is a start and we will win more medals," Jyothi said.
The juniormost member of the team is Aditi, the 17-year-old who recently became the U-18 world champion.
"It is a special moment to win the first medal and see the Indian flag go up," Aditi said.
The word ‘compound’ refers to the type of bow. Compound bows use a levering system of pulleys and cables which, once drawn past a certain point, require very little strength to hold fully drawn.
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Compound, however, is not yet an Olympic event. There is a chance it might become one by the time the 2028 Olympics are held.
National high performance director Sanjeeva Singh said, "It was a historic moment ... we became world champions defeating Colombia in semifinal and Mexico in final (two great compound archery heavyweights). It will see a boom in coming years as there is an outside chance of compound getting introduced in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics as an indoor sport (18M and 25M).”
In the recurve section, it has been a disappointing show by India. There is not a single archer in medal contention.
