Sahil Jadhav and Chikitha Taniparthi win mixed compound gold at Asian Games, secure Olympic quota
Sahil Jadhav and Chikitha Taniparthi won the mixed compound team gold at the Asian Games in Nagoya on September 30, 2026, and their victory secured an Olympic quota for India; Jadhav also added a men’s team gold to complete a golden double.
Sahil, who first participated in an international event in 2025, told The Hindu: “It’s a big thing for me to win an Asian Games gold and to get an Olympic quota for the country. That is what every athlete dreams of; going to the Olympics, representing your country, winning medals. To do so here in my first Asian Games feels really special,” and he shot only one nine in the entire mixed final.
It was almost a week before the sun appeared over Nagoya and Jadhav said he was relieved it did not rain, though conditions did not distract the team. “It’s good that it didn’t rain, but honestly, we weren’t thinking about it at all. Our mindset was only of retaining the gold, come what may. “This is what we had worked so hard for; this is what we had practised for — playing 2-3 events continuously, shooting in all types of conditions. We used to get exhausted and ready to drop during training, but we persisted, knowing what we were aiming for. We knew there would be both physical and mental pressure. We had worked for it and we got it,” an elated Sahil said.
Discussing the late turnaround in the final against China, Jadhav acknowledged the pressure and outlined the team’s approach. “Of course there was pressure. But we knew if we kept doing our things right, everything would fall into place. Overthinking and trying to do too many different things would have only backfired so we kept it simple and routine,” he explained.
National coach Jiwanjot Singh Teja credited a shift in mindset among India’s younger compound archers and said their outlook had changed from participation to winning. “Now they don’t think of participating but winning. The idea of simply participating in the Asian Games or Olympics is not there, especially with compound, which was always treated like a stepchild for so long. The younger archers are more aggressive, bolder and more positive in their thinking,” he said.
The 30-year-old Jyothi Surekha Vennam stressed that Indian compound archers deserved greater recognition and praised her teammates for the team gold. “We have been proving ourselves for the past few years, winning each and every medal possible at the highest levels. I think we are really growing, and hopefully we will continue to grow even more in the coming years,” she hoped. She added: “Everyone is experienced in their own way because they have their own experiences; it’s not their first event, they have won medals before. I think we were just good as a team today. “We didn’t think about defending the title; going into the final, we decided we would just enjoy ourselves and give our best. How the opponent shoots is not in our hands; how we do is. We were focused on ourselves because once you get distracted, it becomes difficult to focus and shoot well.”
The mixed team gold confirmed an Olympic quota for India in compound archery and made Sahil Jadhav the first Indian compound archer to qualify for the Olympics, a selection implication confirmed by the result at the Aichi–Nagoya Asian Games on September 30, 2026.