‘We were ready’: How India’s compound archers prepared for everything and delivered gold in Aichi-Nagoya

India retained gold after beating China in the Women’s Compound Team Archery final at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Multipurpose Square on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

It’s just kind of the way things have been at the Aichi-Nagoya Games. The Chinese women’s compound archery team’s bus arrived late for its semifinal match at Okazaki Chuo Sogo multipurpose park.

India, which was scheduled to play second, was asked if it would go first. India was ready, although its opponent, Korea, demurred. Eventually, the day’s shooting was postponed by half an hour.

Team coach Jiwanjot Singh would shrug his shoulders. “It made no difference to us. We were ready,” he would say later.

Indeed they were. The Indian women’s compound team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Chikitha Taniparthi and Prithika Pradeep shrugged off the rain delay. It brushed off the challenge of South Korea 234-233 before making a near mockery of the final against qualification-round topper China, equalling the world record to win 238-234.

In an Asian Games where Indian title favourites have often failed to meet expectations, the women’s compound archery team absolutely lived up to its top billing.

It cemented its dominance in the event, defending the Asian Games title it had won at the last edition in Hangzhou. “When you are the Indian team, you know you have a reputation to keep up,” says Jyothi Vennam, who, at 30, has now medalled at her fourth Asian Games and added to the three gold medals she won in Hangzhou.

That level of dominance wasn’t followed by hubris.

Over the past month, after the Indian compound squad was selected, archers, coaches and technical staff prepared for every eventuality.

On a campus in the plains of Haryana, just outside the mofussil town of Sonepat, a near-identical replica of the archery complex at Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park, the venue for the event, was recreated.

“We kept everything the same. We kept the platform the same. Same height, colour everything. We kept the flags of different countries who would be taking part in the competition up the same way. We even played the music we expected to be played,” says Jiwanjot Singh.

A ‘war room’ was set up. “We set up scenarios to simulate potential challenges they might face. What if they were 1 point down in the last series. What they had started badly and needed to make up a lead. What if one archer had taken too much time (in every series, the three archers of a team have to shoot six arrows over 120 seconds) and there’s very little time to take aim and release,” Jiwanjot says.

The burly coach from Punjab, with his salt-and-pepper-flecked beard, would laugh at the one eventuality they hadn’t prepared for. “We couldn’t prepare for rain because we didn’t have too much of it in Sonepat last month,” he says.

They hadn’t expected the day’s event to be postponed, either.

Neither would throw them off track. Although Tuesday’s rain soaked their bowstrings and lashed their faces, they advanced confidently into the medal rounds.

The women’s team, comprising Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Prithika Pradeep and Chikita Thaniparthi, edged out China in the final, scoring 238-234. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

And once they got on the platform on a clear Wednesday, next to nothing went wrong. Although Prithika started with a score of 9, her teammates on either side of her compensated. It was a pattern repeated across both the semifinal and final.

There was never a moment when India trailed either Korea or China. And when any Indian archer shot outside the inner 10 ring, the two on either side of her shot 10s to take any pressure off. Jyothi, the senior-most of the shooters, regularly spoke to Prithika and Chikitha, both playing at their first Asian Games, to calm any nerves.

She didn’t have to do too much. “Jyothi didi spoke to us before the final but actually it was very normal. Nothing complicated happened,” says who has become the youngest Indian champion of these games.

In the final, there were just two mistakes (if you can call missing a tea saucer-sized (8cm 10 point ring from 50 metres away a mistake). China’s archers got to within two points in the last series but then released even the slightest pressure, shooting a couple of nines.

Down four points with only three shots to go, their only hope was a catastrophic failure by the three Indian girls. It never came. They had prepared too well. They were too good to fail. All three archers hit the centre of the bullseye.

It was the kind of performance Indians usually imagine other champion teams putting together. Jyothi says people should now be putting the same respect on the Indian team’s name. “In archery people constantly talk about how great Korea is (in recurve archery). They keep saying Korea, Korea Korea. Now they should be taking our name. We are as strong . We’ve won every thing that matters also,” she says.

After another display of exactly this, the team completed one last simulation. “We spent a lot of time visualising and meditating. We thought about how things would be when we stood on the podium and hos it would be when we saw the Indian flag go up. Then we did it for real,” says Prithika.

Published on Sep 30, 2026

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