How Kumkum Mohod won gold: A shoot-off decided by one arrow

The women’s individual recurve final at the Asian Games 2026 was tied 5-5 after five sets.

A single-arrow shoot-off decided it.

South Korea’s Oh Yejin shot an 8.

Kumkum Mohod then shot a perfect 10 to win 6-5.

Mohod is 17 and is the first Indian woman to win individual recurve gold at the Games.

Mohod is the first Indian woman to win individual recurve gold at the Asian Games.

It was her third medal of the Games.

She had already won gold in the women’s recurve team event with Ankita Bhakat and Kirti Sharma, who beat South Korea 5-3 in the final.

That team gold was India’s first in the women’s recurve team event at the Asian Games.

Mohod also won silver in the mixed team event, partnering Dhiraj Bommadevara, on Friday, October 2.

In the men’s individual recurve event, Neeraj Chauhan won bronze by beating fellow Indian Dhiraj Bommadevara 6-4 in an all-Indian bronze medal match.

President Droupadi Murmu and the Sports Minister congratulated Mohod, according to reports, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the archers’ recurve medals.

South Korea’s Oh Yejin took the silver medal, according to The Korea Times.

The Asian Games 2026 are being held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, from September 19 to October 4.

Recurve is the style of bow used in Olympic archery, and recurve matches are shot at a target 70 metres away.

Recurve matches are scored in sets: a set win earns 2 points and a tie earns 1, and the first archer to reach 6 points wins.

If a match is level at 5-5, a one-arrow shoot-off decides it, and a perfect arrow scores 10 points.

Dhiraj Bommadevara finished fourth in the men’s individual recurve event after losing the bronze medal match 6-4 to Neeraj Chauhan.

Archery is one of the sports in which India has won medals at recent editions of the Asian Games.

Archery target (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, public domain