Kirti Sharma says mental composure, trust and focus on training helped India defeat South Korea 5-3 to clinch historic gold at the Asian Games 2026
Nagoya, Oct 2026 : India’s women’s recurve archery team scripted a historic chapter at the Asian Games 2026, defeating South Korea 5-3 in the gold-medal match to end the Korean team’s 44-year dominance in the event.
Kirti Sharma, who joined Ankita Bhakat and Kumkum Mohod in the gold-medal-winning Indian trio, said the team’s success was built on mental composure, mutual trust and a commitment to following its training process rather than being distracted by the strength of its opponents.
Speaking to Sports Authority of India (SAI) media in Japan, Kirti said the archers concentrated on their own performance throughout the high-pressure final.
“We were not thinking about our opponents. We were just focused on our own performance and following the process we went through during training,” she said.
India’s victory over South Korea followed another impressive performance in the semifinals, where the Indian trio defeated China 5-1 to book their place in the final. The result set up a challenging contest against South Korea, a team that had traditionally dominated women’s recurve archery at the Asian Games.
Kirti said controlling their emotions and maintaining confidence in one another proved essential as the Indian archers attempted to overcome the formidable Korean challenge.
“All three of us had to control our emotions and believed in each other. We didn’t think about the results and just gave our 100 percent,” she said.
The archer, who hails from Haryana and trains at the Sports Authority of India centre in Hazaribagh under coach Udham Singh, acknowledged that the final demanded exceptional concentration. According to her, even a minor mistake could have shifted the momentum in favour of South Korea.
“We knew that our opponents can take the game away if we commit even a small mistake. But we stood strong and maintained the same intensity from the first arrow that we fired to the last one,” Kirti said.
The gold medal marked a significant breakthrough for Indian women’s recurve archery, with the team overcoming South Korea in a final that required consistency, discipline and composure. The result also underlined the progress made by Indian archers across different formats of the sport.
India’s recurve squad entered its competition with additional motivation following a remarkable performance by the country’s compound archers. The Indian compound teams had won gold medals in the men’s, women’s and mixed team events at Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park.
Kirti said the compound archers’ success had boosted the confidence of the entire archery contingent and encouraged the recurve team to aim for a similar achievement.
“Our confidence took a big boost after the compound events. The day we won three consecutive gold medals was a lucky day for India. It motivated us a lot. We wanted to emulate their feat,” she said.
She added that the recurve team had been eager to begin its competition after witnessing the compound archers’ performances.
“We were raring to go and could hardly wait for our event to start,” Kirti said.
The victory over South Korea represents a landmark achievement for Indian archery at the Asian Games, particularly in the women’s recurve category, where the Korean team had maintained its dominance for more than four decades.
For Kirti Sharma, Ankita Bhakat and Kumkum Mohod, the gold medal reflects the benefits of preparation, teamwork and the ability to remain composed under pressure.
Their achievement adds to India’s impressive archery campaign at the Games and strengthens the country’s presence in a discipline that has delivered multiple medals across team and individual events. It also provides a significant boost to the Indian women’s recurve programme as the archers look ahead to future international competitions.
