Amravati: From World Cup golds to Asian Games brink — at 17, Kumkum Anil Mohod is already Amravati’s biggest archery star.Kumkum has two World Cup golds to her name already — a team recurve gold in Shanghai and a mixed recurve gold in Antalya with Dhiraj Bommadevara. She now stands on the verge of her first Asian Games medal, as she takes the field in two team finals on Friday — women’s recurve team and recurve mixed team.In Aichi-Nagoya, she has been in ruthless form. In the mixed team, Kumkum and Dhiraj opened with a 6-0 win over UAE, then blanked Vietnam 6-0 to enter the semis. They face Japan on Friday — a rematch of their Antalya final, where the Indian pair had struck gold.In the individual event, she is through to the quarterfinal after back-to-back 6-0 wins. She beat Mongolia’s Urantungalag Bishindee (29-28, 27-24, 28-23) and then Bangladesh’s Saima Salah Uddin (29-26, 28-26, 27-26).Kumkum is the youngest in India’s recurve squad and already its most decorated this season. While 25-year-old Sahil Jadhav from Satara has led India’s charge in compound — winning two Asian Games golds on Wednesday — Kumkum has carried the same hopes in recurve, India’s most competitive category.A product of Amravati’s Divisional Sports Complex and a former Khelo India Youth Games star, she broke into the senior team this year and has not looked back since her Shanghai and Antalya triumphs.If she wins on Friday, Kumkum Anil Mohod will become Amravati’s first-ever Asian Games gold medallist in archery.
