Youth World Championships: Parth 1st Indian male archer to become youth world champ

Limerick (Ireland), July 10

Parth Salunkhe became the first Indian male archer to win a gold medal in the recurve category of the Youth World Championships as the country’s contingent finished with its highest-ever tally of 11 medals.

The 19-year-old, who comes from Satara in Maharashtra, provided the icing on the cake by defeating Song Injun in the Under-21 men’s recurve individual final here on Sunday. Salunkhe, who topped the rankings round, bounced back from behind to down the seventh-seeded South Korean 7-3 (26-26 25-28 28-26 29-26 28-26) in a hard-fought five-setter.

“I try to live in the present and don’t see whom I’m up against. By doing yoga and meditation, it has helped me keep calm, which helped immensely in the final,” Salunkhe said.

India also clinched a bronze medal in the U-21 women’s recurve individual section, with Bhajan Kaur defeating Su Hsin-Yu of Chinese Taipei 7-1 (28-25 27-27 29-25 30-26).

India finished with six gold, one silver and four bronze medals the highest in the standings in terms of total number of medals. But in the overall rankings, they finished second behind South Korea, who ended with six gold and four silver medals.

Showing X-factor

Salunkhe trailed 1-3 after Injun hit two perfect 10s and three 9s from the first six arrows. The former senior national champion Salunkhe fought back by clinching the third set by two points, drilling one arrow closer to the centre (X) to make it three-all.

Pressure was writ large on Injun as Salunkhe went on to hit two 10s and a 9 to snatch a 5-3 lead before finishing off in style with two Xs.

Son of a secondary school English teacher, Salunkhe first caught the attention of coach Pravin Sawant in 2018. After Sawant discovered his talent, Salunkhe trained under Ram Awdhesh at the SAI centre in Sonipat.

“He made some technical changes and as a result Parth has improved vastly under him,” his father Sushant Salunkhe said.