Teenager Kumkum Mohod held her nerve in a tense shoot-off to win the women’s individual recurve gold at the Asian Games, defeating South Korea’s Oh Yejin after their final score was tied at 5-5 on Saturday.

The Indian archer sealed the title with a perfect 10 in the deciding shoot-off. Oh could manage only an 8, handing Kumkum the gold and making her the first Indian woman to win an Asian Games medal in the individual recurve event.

Kumkum had already secured an Olympic quota place for India by reaching the semifinals. She defeated China’s Jingyi Zhu 6-2 in the semifinal to book her place in the gold-medal contest.

The result also earned India one of the two available quota places for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Under the qualification rules, the quota belongs to the country.

Against Zhu, Kumkum started strongly, taking the opening set 28-27. The second set ended 30-30, while the archers shared the points again in the third set after both finished on 29.

With the score at 4-2 in Kumkum’s favour, she edged the Chinese archer 29-28 in the final set to secure a place in the final and guarantee herself at least a silver medal.

Kumkum had earlier produced another major upset in the quarterfinals, defeating reigning world champion Kang Chaeyoung 6-4.

The individual gold adds to an already impressive Asian Games campaign for the teenager. Kumkum won the women’s team recurve title alongside Ankita Bhakat and Kirti Sharma before claiming silver in the mixed pair event with Dhiraj Bommadevara on Friday.

The individual recurve gold, however, marks the biggest milestone of her campaign, with Kumkum becoming the first Indian woman to win an Asian Games medal in the individual recurve event.

With PTI inputs