Heartbreak in Antalya Archery World Cup : Indian Recurve Archers Crash Out in Another Grim Outing
The Antalya leg of the 2025 Archery World Cup has ended in heartbreak for Indian recurve archers, with all individual and team campaigns coming to a disappointing close once again raising uncomfortable questions about India’s inconsistency on the global stage in the Olympic discipline.
At the heart of this latest setback was Simranjeet Kaur’s valiant but ultimately gut-wrenching quarter-final loss to South Korea’s An San. Kaur, the last Indian standing in the individual recurve events in Antalya, came agonisingly close to pulling off what would have been a career-defining win.
Up 5–3 against the reigning Olympic champion and triple gold medallist from Tokyo, Simranjeet was just one set away from a monumental upset. But pressure mounted, momentum shifted, and the match slipped into a shoot-off. A single arrow decided her fate—and the dream was over.
For Indian archery fans, it was a cruel déjà vu. Another promising start, another crushing finish.
A Lone Spark in a Dark Tunnel
Simranjeet’s gritty run into the quarter-finals stood in stark contrast to the early exits suffered by her teammates. India’s top stars, including Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das, couldn’t get past the initial rounds. Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara, both among the more consistent performers in recent months, bowed out in their opening matches.
Despite sending a full-strength squad to Antalya, India had just one archer reach the quarter-finals in either of the individual recurve events—a statistic that underscores the depth of the struggle.
Team Events: Same Story, Different Day
In the women’s team event, India faced a formidable USA lineup in the quarter-finals. What should have been a competitive showdown turned into a one-sided affair, with India losing 1–5. The men’s team, on the other hand, managed to go further in their draw but couldn’t hold on in the bronze medal match against France. The 1–5 defeat again exposed a lack of composure in high-pressure moments.
There was no medal to show for the Indian team’s efforts in Antalya in either men’s or women’s recurve—a worrying trend considering the Olympics in Paris are behind us, and Los Angeles 2028 looms large on the horizon.
Inconsistent 2025: A Mixed Bag
The 2025 World Cup season began on a more hopeful note. Dhiraj won bronze in Stage 1 of the individual men’s recurve, Parth followed with another bronze in Stage 2, and Deepika Kumari added to the tally with her own bronze in the same stage. The men’s team also secured a silver medal in Stage 1. But Antalya was a sharp and sobering departure from that early promise.
There’s no denying that India has individual brilliance. Dhiraj, Parth, and Deepika have shown flashes of elite-level performance this season. But what continues to elude the Indian recurve squad is consistency and the ability to string together strong performances across all brackets—individual, mixed, and team—when it matters most.
What makes the Antalya collapse more concerning is the lack of a coherent pattern in these exits. Some losses come due to technical lapses, others due to tactical misreads or collapses under pressure. It’s clear that India’s archers have the talent, but a lack of mental conditioning, sharper match strategy, and perhaps gaps in coaching at the international level are hurting their ability to deliver at the highest stage.
Head coach and the coaching staff will have their task cut out. The Asian Archery Championships and the final World Cup stage are around the corner, and the need for urgent course correction cannot be overstated.
The Road Ahead: Rebuilding with Urgency
The challenge for Indian archery is no longer about qualifying for medal rounds—it’s about staying there, holding nerves, and finishing the job. For every promising run like Simranjeet’s in Antalya, there have been three disappointing first-round exits. That imbalance has become a recurring theme.
With just a few major international events left before qualification battles for the 2027 World Archery Championships and Olympic quotas begin, the current generation needs to step up—or risk leaving Indian archery’s golden hopes unfulfilled.
For now, Simranjeet Kaur’s narrow defeat to An San is a painful reminder of what could have been. But more importantly, it’s a signal to India’s archery establishment: the time for moral victories is long gone. What’s needed now is sustained performance, accountability, and a long-term vision that ensures India doesn’t just reach quarters—but crosses the finish line with medals.
