Archery Premier League — Defending champion Rajputana Royals begins with a bang

Ojas Deotale (R) of Rajputana Royals in action during the opening match. | Photo Credit: Archery Premier League

In a repeat of the inaugural season’s final, Rajputana Royals began the defence of its Archery Premier League (APL) title defence in style, beating Prithviraaj Yodhas 5-3 in the opening match of season 2 at the People’s Plaza in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Compound archers Ojas Deotale and Ella Gibson lead the way for Royals at the start, with Mete Gazoz giving good support. After a slow start, Abhishek Verma-led Yodhas bounced back and came close to taking the match into a hit-or-miss shootoff, before Mathias Grande shot only an eight with the final arrow.

The second contest of the night saw the Mighty Marathas suffer a remarkable collapse against Kakatiya Knights. Marathas won the first two sets before losing the next two and then stumbled in the shootoff.

Nico Wiener and Neeraj Chauhan nailed the inner X-ring in the hit-or-miss shootout after Marathas, who paid the price for substituting out Dhiraj Bommadevara for the final two sets, let slip a 4-0 advantage.

In the final match, Chero Archers defeated Chola Chiefs 5-3. The Archers took the first set but Chiefs fought back to level the match at 2-2.

In the final set, Chikitha Taniparthi and Rajat Chauhan couldn’t apply the early pressure on Archers as they dropped a couple of 9s. Archers saw their compounds give them the perfect start. Casey Kaufhold’s with the penultimate arrow made it tricky but it didn’t matter in the end.

Earlier, India’s 2026 Asian Games medallists were felicitated by Vakiti Srihari, Telangana’s Sports Minister, A.P. Jithender Reddy, Telangana Olympic Association president and APL director Anil Kamineni.

Results

Rajputana Royals 5-3 Prithviraaj Yodhas (75-69, 73-74, 77-77, 76-75).

Kakatiya Knights 4-4 (2-0) Mighty Marathas (73-76, 74-77, 75-66, 77-70).

Chola Chiefs 3 - 5 Chero Archers (69-74, 71-70, 75-79, 73-73).