Teenage archer Kumkum Mohod won India's first individual recurve gold at the Asian Games on Saturday, beating South Korea's Oh Yejin 6-5 in a shoot-out in the final. The victory also earned India one of two available individual quota places for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The Games are being held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.

Kumkum, from the western Indian state of Maharashtra, needed a 9 or better in the deciding shoot-out after Oh shot an 8. She hit a 10. The final swung back and forth: an 8 cost her the opening set, and another 8 handed Oh the fourth, but each time she answered with three 10s to stay in the match. Earlier in the day she beat former world number one Zhu Jingyi of China 6-2 in the semifinal, and she opened with a 6-4 quarterfinal win over reigning world champion Kang Chaeyoung of South Korea. She is the first Indian woman to win an individual recurve medal at the Asian Games. Tarundeep Rai, who took silver in Guangzhou in 2010, is the only other Indian to have won one in the event.

The gold was her second of the Games, along with a silver. She won the women's team title alongside Ankita Bhakat and Kirti Sharma on Friday, and she took silver in the mixed pair with Dhiraj Bommadevara. Describing her approach, she said she visualises each stage of the process, from her stance to her breathing between shots, rather than the result itself. Under the rules, the Olympic quota belongs to the country, not the athlete, and it is an individual place, as India has not yet secured a team quota. Kumkum must still finish in the top three in the federation's selection trials, normally held about six months before the Games, to make the team.

Friday's results had already shifted the balance of power in the sport at these Games. South Korea, the traditional force in recurve archery, had aimed to sweep all five recurve titles, but its plan faltered when the women's team lost 5-3 to India in the first final of the day. South Korea did win the men's team gold, beating India 5-1 in Okazaki, about 50 kilometres southeast of Nagoya. Lee Woo-seok, Kim Je-deok and Kim Woo-jin secured the country's second straight title in the event. The South Koreans also took women's team silver and mixed team bronze that day, the latter after a semifinal loss to China.

For India, the results mark a breakthrough in an event dominated for decades by South Korea, and they give the country a first secured place in the Olympic recurve competition for Los Angeles.