Archery Asia Cup 2025 Singapore: Kushal Dalal, Tejal Salve strike gold as India finish with nine medals
Singapore/Patiala, 20 June (Sports Desk)
Indian archers made the finals of seven of the 10 medal events at stage 2 of the Archery Asia Cup this year.
A young Indian team produced a solid show at the Archery Asia Cup 2025 Singapore leg 2, finishing with a total of nine medals – two golds, six silvers and one bronze.
The second stage of the Archery Asia Cup 2025 series concluded on Friday. India had also dominated the Bangkok leg of the Asia Cup earlier this year, finishing as the top nation with eight medals – five gold, two silver and a bronze.
Kushal Dalal, who had impressed at the opening leg in Bangkok with individual and team titles, continued his golden run by defeating Australia’s Joshua Mahon 149-143 in the individual men’s compound archery final at Bukit Gombak Stadium.
watch…..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CPSUG0loQA
India’s Sachin Chechi bagged bronze in the same event, beating Bangladesh’s Himu Bachhar 148-146.
In the compound women’s final, it was an all-Indian affair with Tejal Salve edging out Shanmukhi Naga Sai Budde 146-144 to clinch gold.
Budde later partnered up with Dalal in the compound mixed team final, but the Indian duo narrowly lost to Kazakhstan’s Adel Zhexenbinova and Andrey Tyutyun 155-153 and settled for another silver.
Indian archers qualified for five of the six team finals and two of the four individual gold medal matches.
The women’s compound team of Budde, Salve and Tanishka Nilkumar Thokal bagged the silver medal after losing to Malaysia 29-26 in a shootoff after the match ended in a 232-232 tie.
In the men’s compound team event, Kushal Dalal, Ganesh Thirumuru and Mihir Nitin Apar went down 231-235 to Kazakhstan in the final.
In the recurve events, India settled for silver in the mixed team event after losing 6-0 to Indonesia, with the pairing of Vishnu Choudhary and Vaishnavi Babarao Pawar falling short against Arif Pangestu and Ayu Mareta Dyasari.
Vishnu Choudhary, Paras Hooda and Juyel Sarkar looked in fine form throughout the men’s recurve team competition but ran out of steam in the final against Japan, losing 6-0.
With top names like Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Deepika Kumari skipping the meet, India’s 16-member contingent for the Singapore meet was entirely comprised Under-21 archers.
Interestingly, the Indian women’s compound team of Tejal Salve, Shanmukhi Naga Sai Budde and Tanishka Nilkumar Thokal tallied a total of 2101 points in the qualifiers to set a new U-21 world record. The trio only held the previous record of 2076, created in 2023.
Archery Asia Cup 2025 Shanghai: India medal winners
- Kushal Dalal – gold medal in men’s individual compound
- Tejal Salve – gold medal in women’s individual compound
- Shanmukhi Naga Sai Budde – silver medal in women’s individual compound
- Kushal Dalal and Shanmukhi Naga Sai Budde – silver medal in compound mixed team
- Shanmukhi Naga Sai Budde, Tejal Salve and Tanishka Nilkumar Thokal – silver medal in women’s compound team
- Kushal Dalal, Ganesh Thirumuru and Mihir Nitin Apar – silver medal in men’s compound team
- Vishnu Choudhary and Vaishnavi Babarao Pawar – silver medal in recurve mixed team
- Vishnu Choudhary, Paras Hooda and Juyel Sarkar – silver medal in men’s recurve team
- Sachin Chechi – bronze medal in men’s individual compound
