archery
– Photo: Social Media
Expansion
19-year-old archer Parth Salunke from Satara (Maharashtra) has become the first recurve archer from the country to become the World Youth Champion. Parth defeated Korea’s Song Injun 7-3 to win the gold, while Haryana’s Bhajan Kaur won the bronze in the under-21 category on Sunday. In this championship, India won 11 medals (six gold, one silver, four bronze) in its best performance. India finished second behind Korea in the medal tally. No other country has won more medals than India. Korea topped the table with six gold and four silver.
win after bad start
Parth did not have a good start in the final. The first set ended in a 26-26 draw and the second set he lost 25-28 to trail 1-3. Parth made a tremendous comeback from here. He won the gold medal by winning the third game 28-26, the fourth set 29-26 and the fifth set 28-26. In the women’s recurve bronze medal match, Bhajan Kaur easily defeated Hsu Hsin Yu of Chinese Taipei 7-1 (28-25, 27-27, 29-25, 30-26).
Parth became the sixth archer to become world youth champion
Son of a teacher father and a librarian mother, Parth is the sixth Indian archer to become the world youth champion. Deepika Kumari became the World Cadet and Youth champion in recurve for the first time in 2009 and 2011. In 2019 and 2021, Komalika Bari of Jharkhand achieved the same feat. Compound archers Paltan Hansda were the winners in 2006. The pair of Aditi Swami and Priyansh achieved the distinction of becoming World Youth Champions here.
Yoga, Pranayama helped: Partha
Parth Salunke said, “I believe in living in the present, I don’t think about who I am going to play against. Doing yoga and pranayama helps me stay calm, which helped me a lot in the finals.