<p>At the Youth World Championships, Parth Salunkhe became the first male archer to win a gold medal in the recurve division, and India ended with their highest-ever haul of 11 medals.</p>
<p>The Under-21 men’s recurve solo championship was won here on Sunday by a 19-year-old from Satara, Maharashtra, who defeated a Korean.</p>
<p>In a tense five-set match, Salunkhe, who finished first in the rankings round, defeated seventh seed Song Injun 7-3 (26-26, 25-28, 28-26, 29-26, 28-26).<img decoding=”async” class=”alignnone wp-image-66866″ src=”https://www.theindiaprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/www.theindiaprint.com-parth-salunkhe-wins-the-youth-world-championship-in-the-recurve-category-being-the-first-indian-archer-to-do-so-parth-salunkhe-750×417.jpg” alt=”” width=”1559″ height=”867″ srcset=”https://www.theindiaprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/www.theindiaprint.com-parth-salunkhe-wins-the-youth-world-championship-in-the-recurve-category-being-the-first-indian-archer-to-do-so-parth-salunkhe-750×417.jpg 750w, https://www.theindiaprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/www.theindiaprint.com-parth-salunkhe-wins-the-youth-world-championship-in-the-recurve-category-being-the-first-indian-archer-to-do-so-parth-salunkhe-1024×569.jpg 1024w, https://www.theindiaprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/www.theindiaprint.com-parth-salunkhe-wins-the-youth-world-championship-in-the-recurve-category-being-the-first-indian-archer-to-do-so-parth-salunkhe-768×427.jpg 768w, https://www.theindiaprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/www.theindiaprint.com-parth-salunkhe-wins-the-youth-world-championship-in-the-recurve-category-being-the-first-indian-archer-to-do-so-parth-salunkhe-150×83.jpg 150w, https://www.theindiaprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/www.theindiaprint.com-parth-salunkhe-wins-the-youth-world-championship-in-the-recurve-category-being-the-first-indian-archer-to-do-so-parth-salunkhe.jpg 1200w” sizes=”(max-width: 1559px) 100vw, 1559px” /></p>
<p>Bhaja Kaur’s 7-1 victory against Chinese Taipei’s Su Hsin-Yu in the Under-21 women’s recurve solo competition earned India a bronze medal as well (28-25, 27-27, 29-25, 30-26).</p>
<p>India finished with the most medals overall, six gold, one silver, and four bronze, placing first in the rankings.</p>
<p>However, they came in second place in the medal count behind Korea, who won six gold and four silver medals to take the top spot.</p>
<p>Salunkhe was down 1-3 after Injun’s first six arrows, which included two flawless 10s and three 9s.</p>
<p>When it seemed like Korea would once again dominate India, the previous senior national champion Salunkhe battled back and won the third set by two points. To tie the match at three, he drilled an arrow that was closer to the center (X).</p>
<p>Salunkhe went on to hit two 10s and one 9 to grab a 5-3 lead before putting the game away with two Xs, putting a lot of pressure on Injun.</p>
<p>Salunkhe, a teacher’s son, was the first male archer to win a juvenile world championship after coach Praveen Sawant saw his potential during the post-pandemic period in 2021.</p>
<p>Salunkhe studied under Ram Avdesh at the SAI center in Sonipat after Sawant recognized his ability.</p>
<p>Deepika Kumari won the cadet and youth world titles in the women’s recurve event in 2009 and 2011, while Komalika Bari of Jharkhand followed suit in 2019 and 2021.</p>
<p>Salunkhe is the sixth Indian archer to win the world championship title in the junior competition.</p>
<p>The other young world champions in compound archery are Aditi Swami and Priyansh, who took first place here in 2006, and Palton Hansda.</p>
<p>Salunkhe previously won two bronze medals in the same competition in Sulaymaniyah and Sharjah last year, as well as a silver in the Singapore Asia Cup Leg 3 in June of this year.</p>
<p>Salunkhe’s chances of qualifying for the World Championships and Asian Games are still up in the air.</p>
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