India eyeing 11-12 Archery Medals; Had no Issue with Accommodation, being served Indian Food: Head Coach Jiwanjot Teja | Exclusive

India produced a memorable day in compound archery at the Asian Games 2026 on September 30, sweeping all three available team gold medals at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Multipurpose Square in Aichi-Nagoya. The clean sweep saw India successfully defend its titles in the men's, women's and mixed compound team events.

The golden run began with Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Chikitha Taniparthi and Prithika Pradeep defeating China 238-234 in the women's team final. The Indian trio also equalled the world and Asian record with their score.

In the men's final, Kushal Dalal, Sahil Jadhav and Ganesh Mani Ratnam edged China 238-237 in a thrilling contest to complete India's second archery gold of the day.

The mixed team final provided the most dramatic finish. Sahil Jadhav and Chikitha Taniparthi were held to a 157-157 tie by South Korea before prevailing 20-19 in the shoot-off. Their victory also secured India a quota place for the LA 2028 Olympics in the compound mixed team event.

The three golds marked a remarkable display of consistency and composure from India's compound archers. And on October 1, India continued their medal prowess as Ganesh Mani Ratnam secured a Bronze medal at the individual compound event.

As the Indian team looks to add to their tally in the upcoming Recurve events, MyKhel caught up with India's head of Archery Jiwanjot Teja, who believes the Indian team can surpass their medal tally of 9 from last edition. The Dronacharya award winner has been honing the head coach role for the Indian team in this competition, and has high hopes as he spoke from Japan.

"The performance has been amazing. We are looking strong and hopefully we will continue to win medals. We won 9 medals in the last Asian Games edition, this time we want to get 11-12 medals."

"The expectation from the recurve team is massive. If you see, their rankings and scores, they have all improved in recent times. It's a huge positive that we are doing well compared to Korea."

Although many other athletes faced accommodation issues and had to wait for their room allotment at the Asian Games, the Archery coach reveals none of that happened to the Archery team. Upon reaching Japan, the team were provided with a separate hotel to stay, while two vans were booked for them for transport for the entirety of the competition. Along with that, the coach also revealed that they are being served Indian food as well.

"The Indian government has helped us a lot. We are travelling in private vans, and eating Indian food here. So, the arrangement for us has been fantastic, we can't complain of any trouble."

With four medals already secured, India will be vowing to rack up more as the Archery action hits the penultimate day on October 2.