Latest news with #KoreanOlympic
News18
3 days ago
- Sport
- News18
India's Archery Team Misses Medals At World Cup In Antalya, Raises Concerns
Last Updated: India's archery team failed to win medals at Stage 3 of the World Cup in Antalya, raising concerns about team selection and preparation as even star archers underperformed. Indian archery experienced a disappointing outcome at Stage 3 of the World Cup on Saturday, failing to secure any medals. This performance has raised serious concerns about team selection, preparation, and mental resilience, particularly with the Asian Games approaching in a year. The success in Shanghai last month, where India ranked second in the medal tally with two gold, one silver, and four bronze medals, now appears distant. In Antalya, both recurve and compound archers underperformed, failing to achieve a single podium finish, even in their traditionally strong compound category. Following the compound archers' elimination in both individual and team events, the recurve results proved equally disappointing. Even seasoned archers like four-time Olympians Deepika Kumari and Tarundeep Rai failed to progress to the medal rounds. Simranjeet Kaur demonstrated some resilience, pushing Korean Olympic gold medallist An San to a shoot-off in the quarter-finals on Saturday. Despite narrowly qualifying in 54th place with the third-lowest qualification score, she held a 5-3 lead and required just one point to secure victory against An San. However, succumbing to pressure in the final set, she lost 5-6 (29-28, 24-29, 27-24, 27-27, 23-29) (8-11). Deepika Kumari also faced setbacks, with An San defeating her three times, dashing her hopes for a consecutive medal after winning bronze in Shanghai last month. Deepika, a former world number one, continues to struggle against top-tier opponents. Ankita Bhakat, India's highest-ranked archer in qualification at 32nd, lost in the first round 2-6 (27-26, 26-28, 29-30, 28-29) to Dunya Yenhihayat, despite an initial 2-0 lead. The men fared no better. Parth Salunkhe, a former youth world champion and Shanghai bronze medallist, exited in the first round, losing to Lu Shuai of China 2-6 (28-29, 25-28, 28-25, 27-30). At 41, Tarundeep Rai's selection appears questionable, following his 2-6 defeat to Germany's Mathias Kramer (28-30, 29-28, 27-31, 29-32). Seasoned competitor Atanu Das, after establishing a 4-2 lead, lost to world number one Brady Ellison 4-6 (28-27, 30-31, 31-30, 30-31, 27-30). Dhiraj Bommadevara, India's top qualifier at 13th, also relinquished a 4-2 advantage, losing 4-6 (30-30, 30-30, 31-30, 28-29, 28-30) to Chinese Taipei's Tang Chin-Chun. India's campaign in Antalya concluded without a medal. The closest the team came to a podium finish was in the recurve men's and compound women's team events, where both teams lost their respective bronze medal matches. The compound women's team narrowly lost 238-239 to the USA. The recurve men's team was defeated 1-5 by France. The compound men's team, once among the world's elite, suffered a first-round exit. The compound mixed team also struggled, exiting in the quarter-finals. In the recurve mixed team event, they failed to progress beyond the first round. The recurve women's team, despite a promising start, lost in the quarter-finals. In the individual compound category, Rishabh Yadav and Madhura Dhamangaonkar reached the quarter-finals before being eliminated. A significant concern for India is the declining form of top-ranked compound archers Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam. Jyothi, consistently a podium finisher until 2023, exited in the second round of 32, extending her medal drought beyond a year. Her last medal was gold at the Shanghai World Cup in April. Since then, the Asian Games gold medallist has experienced a downturn in performance. Two-time Asian Games silver medallist Verma was eliminated in the round of 16 by teammate Rishabh Yadav. Verma has not won a medal since June 2023, when he secured gold in Medellin. Questions will arise regarding team selection, particularly the continued inclusion of Rai, who has demonstrated limited capability in high-pressure situations. Deepika continues to struggle against elite competitors, especially Koreans. With emerging archers like Simranjeet showing potential, India's archery programme requires a comprehensive review, starting with bolder selection policies and urgent mental conditioning. With the Asian Games and the LA Olympics on the horizon, India's archery system must engage in introspection. Recurve archery remains trapped in a cycle of promise and disappointment, while India's dominance in compound archery is waning. This is concerning given the discipline's planned debut at the LA 2028 Olympics as a mixed team event. Ironically, South Korea, a recurve powerhouse with 43 Olympic medals, is now also making strides in compound archery. In Antalya, they won silver in the women's team event and bronze in the men's, highlighting their progress. Han Seungyeon, who topped the qualification round, is also positioned to win her first World Cup gold medal. News18 Sports brings you the latest updates, live commentary, and highlights from cricket, football, tennis, badmintion, wwe and more. Catch breaking news, live scores, and in-depth coverage. Also Download the News18 App to stay updated! Location : Antalya First Published: News sports India's Archery Team Misses Medals At World Cup In Antalya, Raises Concerns
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
In this fast-paced world, it's important to time your pause
I once watched a Korean Olympic archer on television — his stance steady, eyes locked on the target. What struck me wasn't the moment he released the arrow, but what came before: that breathless pause as he drew the bowstring back, holding it taut just a second longer than seemed necessary. Later, I learned this wasn't hesitation. It was part of the shot. The arrow's power came not just from the release, but from that suspended moment of perfect tension. You see, we live in a world that worships at the altar of constant motion. Our phones buzz with productivity apps and notification pings, our society praises 'hustle culture,' and we wear our exhaustion like badges of honour. I know this dance well — there was a time in my early career when I measured my worth by how few hours I slept and how many meetings I could cram into a day. The headaches and sluggishness that followed were my body's way of sounding the alarm, though I was too busy to listen at first. It took a stern warning from my doctor to realise I'd been treating myself like a perpetual machine that never needed maintenance. The truth is, we've fundamentally misunderstood what it means to pause. We see it as empty space—wasted time between bursts of productivity—when in reality, it's where the magic happens. Think of the way a durian tree rests between fruitings, or how the best nasi lemak requires the rice to soak before steaming. These aren't interruptions to the process; they are the process. Consider how we approach problem-solving. How often have you wrestled with a question or life problem late into the night, only to have the solution appear the next morning in the shower? That's not coincidence — it's your brain finally being allowed to do its best work (some say it's your subconscious part of your brain that solved it, but let's not get into that today). The spaces between our efforts are where connections form, where creativity sparks. Yet we resist these pauses fiercely. There's the guilt—that nagging voice whispering 'you should be doing more.' There's the fear—that if we stop, even for a moment, we'll fall hopelessly behind. But this is like an archer refusing to draw their bow properly for fear of wasting time. The power was always in the pullback. Building pauses into our lives requires intention. It might mean stepping outside between meetings to feel the sun on your face and breathe deeply—inhale for four counts, hold for four, exhale for six. When I'm stuck on a complex problem, I've learned to switch to something seemingly unrelated—maybe writing an outline for my next article based on a thought I had during my run the previous weekend, crafting a prompt for an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to produce a song (yes, there is such a thing), or simply looking out the window of my office. These aren't distractions, but portals to new ways of thinking. The most radical pause I've implemented is a quarterly day of complete disconnection—no emails, no news, just a notebook and my thoughts. It is in these quiet spaces that my best ideas emerge, fully formed like butterflies from cocoons. At first, it felt self-indulgent. Now I recognise it as the most productive thing I do. What we're talking about here isn't laziness or lack of ambition. It's the wisdom to understand that all living things operate in rhythms—expansion and contraction, effort and recovery. I remembered my old friend Norazlisham, who shared the same birthday as me (just the date, not the year), saying that in silat, the most powerful strikes come after moments of perfect stillness. The pause isn't the enemy of productivity; it's its secret weapon. So this week, I challenge you to experiment with intentional pauses. Not when you're already exhausted, but before you need them. Notice how the quality of your work changes when you allow for breathing room. Observe how solutions emerge when you stop chasing them so desperately. Rumi once wrote that 'sometimes silence is the most powerful scream.' In a world that never stops shouting, perhaps our most revolutionary act is the courage to be still. To draw back like the archer, to feel the tension of potential, and then, only then; To release. The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of Twentytwo13.
