Indian compound archer Ganesh Mani Ratnam Thirumuru claimed the men's individual bronze medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026 on Thursday, 1 October, defeating Vietnam's Cong Duc Dang by a commanding 149-144 margin at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Multipurpose Square. The victory pushed India's archery medal tally at these Games to four, capping a historic compound campaign.

Ganesh's Perfect Finish

Ganesh was clinical in closing out the bronze-medal match, landing 14 tens across his arrows and sealing the contest with three successive 10s in the final end to reach 149, leaving his Vietnamese opponent well behind at 144. The bronze adds to his gold from the men's team compound event on Wednesday, making him a double medallist at Aichi-Nagoya.

India's Overall Compound Archery Haul

India concluded the compound archery competition at Aichi-Nagoya with three gold medals — in the men's team, women's team, and compound mixed team events — plus the one individual bronze. Notably, the mixed team gold secured by Chikitha Taniparthi and Sahil Jadhav also earned India a quota place for the compound mixed team event at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, where the discipline is set to make its Olympic debut.

Chikitha's Quarter-Final Exit

Earlier on the same day, Chikitha Taniparthi was eliminated from the women's compound individual event following a narrow 143-144 defeat to Indonesia's Nurisa Dian Ashrifah in the quarter-finals. Chikitha trailed after the opening two ends but rallied in the third end to take the lead. However, an 8, 9, 10 finish in the final end proved costly — Nurisa responded with 10, 10, 9 to edge the contest by a single point.

The Hangzhou Shadow and World Record Moment

The individual compound disciplines at Aichi-Nagoya represent the two events in which India fell short of defending the gold medals won at Hangzhou 2023. In Hangzhou, Indian compound archers swept all five gold medals on offer, contributing to a record haul of nine medals overall — five gold, two silver, and two bronze. This time, a team gold in the women's event was secured in dramatic fashion: the Indian women's trio of Chikitha Taniparthi, Prithika Pradeep, and Jyothi Surekha Vennam beat China 238-234, matching the world-record score set by South Korea in Incheon 2014 — a score that had stood for over a decade. On the men's side, Kushal Dalal, Sahil Jadhav, and Ganesh engineered a dramatic comeback against China to clinch the men's team gold.

What This Campaign Means for Indian Archery

India's compound archery programme has now won medals at three successive Asian Games, progressively building from silver and bronze in team events in 2014 and 2018 to a complete gold sweep in Hangzhou and a near-repeat at Aichi-Nagoya. The Los Angeles 2028 quota place in the mixed team event elevates the stakes further, giving India a direct pathway to Olympic compound archery for the first time. Whether the individual event gap — the only blemish on an otherwise dominant campaign — can be closed before 2028 remains the key challenge ahead.