Parth Salunkhe becomes India’s first male recurve archer to be crowned Youth World Champion

Parth Salunkhe has written history by becoming the first Indian male recurve archer to win the Youth World Championship.

Following in Deepika Kumari’s footsteps, who was the first to do so in the female category in 2009, Parth Salunkhe has now become the first male archer from India to be crowned the Youth World Champion in the recurve category.

The Indian contingent had a very strong showing at the competition and Salunkhe’s gold was among the 11 medals that was won by the country. This is the highest ever tally for an Indian contingent in the history of the championships.

The 19-year-old teenager from Maharashtra's Satara defeated Korea's Song Injun 7-3 (26-26, 25-28, 28-26, 29-26, 28-26) in a fighting five-set battle in the under-21 men's recurve individual final on Sunday.

India also managed to secure a bronze medal in the Under-21 women's recurve individual section when Bhaja Kaur defeated Su Hsin-Yu of Chinese Taipei 7-1 (28-25, 27-27, 29-25, 30-26).

Archers from India collectively finished with a haul of six gold, one silver and four bronze medals, which was highest in the standings in terms of total number of medals.

However, when it comes to rankings, India finished second behind Korea who were crowned winners with six gold and four silver medals.

Salunkhe had actually been trailing 1-3 after Injun hit two perfect 10s and three 9s from first six arrows.

When it was starting to appear that the Korean may have the edge, the former senior national champion crawled his way back by clinching the third set by two points, drilling one arrow closer to the centre (X) and made it three-all.

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

Salunkhe’s potential in archery was first tapped into by coach Praveen Sawant during the post-pandemic phase in 2021, became the first male archer to become a youth world champion.
After Sawant discovered his talent, Salunkhe trained under Ram Avdesh at the SAI centre in Sonipat.

He has now become the sixth Indian archer to be a world champion in the youth showpiece event.

The teenager has previously won a silver in the Singapore Asia Cup Leg 3 in June this year, and two bronze medals in the same event in Sulaymaniyah and Sharjah last year.
Salunkhe will now have his eye on making it to India's Asian Games squad.