Dhiraj Beats Korea Twice to Win Double Gold at Antalya World Cup

B. Dhiraj had one of those Sundays you don't forget. The 24-year-old Asian champion pulled off a double in Antalya — mixed team recurve gold with 17-year-old rookie Kumkum Mohod, then the individual title, both on the same afternoon, both against Korea.

The mixed team final wasn't particularly close. Dhiraj and Mohod beat Olympic medallist Kim Je Deok and former World youth champion Oh Yejin 5-1, taking two sets 37-36 and sealing it with a 39-39 draw in the third. The individual gold was a different story. Lee Woo Seok — multiple World and Olympic medallist — pushed Dhiraj all the way, and the scoreline shows it: 7-3 across five sets (30-29, 29-28, 27-27, 27-29, 30-29). Dhiraj had already survived a tough 6-4 semifinal against Austria's Moritz Wieser before any of that.

Both results sit in a bigger context worth spelling out. India's previous mixed team World Cup gold came from Tarundeep Rai and Ridhi Phor — also in Antalya, back in 2022. The last Indian man to win an individual World Cup gold was Atanu Das in Guatemala City in 2021. And Korea had taken every mixed team gold since the format entered the Olympics, so Dhiraj and Mohod beating them wasn't just a win — it was a genuine upset.