Saltillo (Mexico), Sep 14 (IANS) Sixteen years after Jayanta Talukdar put India on the podium, Dhiraj Bommadevara finally gave the country another landmark moment in the men’s recurve division, holding his nerve in a shoot-off to become the first Indian male archer to win the Archery World Cup Final.

The 25-year-old Army archer, ranked world No. 10, prevailed over Japan’s Nakanishi Junya 6-5 in a final that went down to the wire in Saltillo. With the contest locked at 5-5 after five sets, Dhiraj produced a 10 in the shoot-off before Nakanishi managed a nine to seal the gold.

It was a breakthrough that had eluded Dhiraj in his two previous World Cup Final appearances. He had returned from the 2023 and 2024 editions without a medal, but this time navigated the knockout rounds with authority before finding himself in a tense title battle against world No. 20 Nakanishi.

Neither archer was willing to give ground in the final. The scores read 28-28, 28-29, 29-28, 28-30, and 28-27 across the five sets, leaving the gold to be decided by the smallest of margins.

Dhiraj’s victory also rewrote India’s record at the prestigious season-ending event. Talukdar had previously won bronze in Edinburgh in 2010, but no Indian man had gone all the way to gold since the tournament’s inception.

India’s only other individual World Cup Final champion remains Dola Banerjee, who captured the women’s title in Dubai in 2007. Dhiraj’s triumph, therefore, marks India’s first World Cup Final gold since Banerjee’s success 19 years ago.

The achievement comes in a tournament where Deepika Kumari remains India’s most decorated archer. She has collected six World Cup Final medals — five silver and one bronze — across eight appearances.

For Dhiraj, however, Saltillo was about creating a record of his own. After two previous attempts ended without a medal, the Army archer finally converted his third World Cup Final appearance into the biggest title of his career, while opening a new chapter for Indian men’s recurve archery.

--IANS

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