He took India’s top recurve archer. Dheeraj Bomadeura 20 long years of lifting the bow to win a gold medal at the World Cup. And when he did, he achieved the ‘double’ at the World Cup Stage III in Antalya on Sunday.Pairing for the first time this season, 24-year-old Olympian Dheeraj and 17-year-old Kumkum Anil Mohod defeated the Korean pair of Kim Ji-deok and Oh Hye-jin 5-1 (37-36, 37-36, 39-39) to win India’s first ever World Cup 20 Gold Cup. When Ridhi and Tirundeep Roy finished on top.It was a near-perfect run for the duo, who beat Denmark 6-0, the USA 6-2 and Germany 6-2, to book a place in Sunday’s final against Korea, which has won both Olympic mixed team gold medals since joining the Games at Tokyo 2020.Hours later, Dheeraj defeated Germany’s Moritz Wieser 6-4 (2627, 28-28, 28-28, 3027, 28-23) in the individual semifinals before returning to the fray against Paris Olympics bronze medalist Lee Woo Seok of South Korea. 27-27, 27-29, 30-29) at the summit.Dheeraj, who made his World Cup debut in 2021, thus improved on his 2023, 24 and 25 World Cup bronze medal-winning performances and qualified for the season-ending World Cup final.Rising star Kumkum was also part of the women’s recurve team that stunned 10-time Olympic champions Korea in the semi-finals to win gold at the Shanghai World Cup last month. Although the more experienced Dheeraj was seen guiding Kumkum throughout the final, he later said, “I learned a lot from his fearless shooting style.”
