Indian sports wrap, January 9: Kumkum gets top spot in women’s recurve at archery selection trials

ARCHERY

Sixteen-year-old Kumkum Mohod performed consistently well to emerge as the top archer in the recurve women’s section at the first selection trials on the Sports Authority of India campus in Kolkata on Friday.

Hailing from Amaravati (Maharashtra), Kumkum, who finished third in the elimination phase, collected an overall 13.5 points over three stages to pip Olympian Ankita Bhakat, the elimination winner, by 0.5 points.

Persuaded by her coach, Prafull Dange, to skip the National School Games in Ranchi in order to compete here, Kumkum, who made her international debut in the Asia Cup Stage-1 last year, got rewarded for her strong work ethic and hunger for success.

“I visualised winning the trials,” said Kumkum, who got a sponsorship offer from OGQ during the trials.

Simranjeet Kaur and Deepika Kumari were tied on 12.75, but the former won a shoot-off to be third.

Olympian B.Dhiraj (14) and World University Games gold medallist Sahil Jadhav (13.75) claimed number one positions in recurve and compound men’s sections, respectively.

Despite losing the elimination final 147-148 to Tejal Salve, V. Jyothi Surekha (15.25) was the best among compound women.

The top four will compete in World Cup stages in Mexico (April 7-12) and China (May 5-10). The top-16 will compete in the second selection trials, following which archers will be picked for the next two World Cups, in Turkey (June 9-14) and Spain (July 7-12), and the Asian Games (September 19-October 4).

-Y.B.Sarangi

BOXING

National boxing championships: Jadumani outlasts Panghal to enter final; NIkhat, Lovlina register easy wins

Youth overwhelmed experience as 21-year-old Jadumani Singh beat seasoned Amit Panghal 5-0 to advance to the title clash in the 55kg at the Elite men’s and women’s national boxing championships at the Gautam Buddha University on Friday.

It was the most keenly watched bout of the day with Jadumani and Panghal, both belonging to the Services Sports Control Board (SSCB), discarding caution and going on the attack from the beginning. Panghal, the senior pro, seemed to have the upper hand initially with a flurry of punches and jabs, but Jadumani gradually pushed back, finding gaps in his defence and using the occasional upper cut to earn points.

He will take on World Boxing Cup finals silver medalist Pawan Bartwal in an all-SSCB final. It will be only one of the six all-SSCB finals in the men’s section of the competition out of the 10 weight categories, as the national championships have virtually turned into a Services versus everyone else. Fifteen of the 20 finalists are from SSCB, the only exception being the heavyweight 90kg, which will see Harsh Chaudhary (Rajasthan) and Naman (RSPB) fight it out for the title.

Among the women, it is Railways that holds sway, with six of the 10 finals featuring an RSPB contender. The spotlight, however, would be on Nikhat Zareen and Nitu Ghanghas, both former world champions but in different categories, while Minakshi Hooda would be looking to defend her 48kg title against 2019 world championship runner-up Manju Rani.

Disruption and delay

The 65kg bout between Services’ Pranjal Yadav and defending champion Neeraj Phogat of Haryana (Har) ended 4-1 in the former’s favour, but it took almost half an hour to complete.

The Haryana supporters and Neeraj’s team protested against what they called biased refereeing after the first two rounds were awarded to Pranjal 3-2. The bout was stopped for almost five minutes after the second round, even as both boxers kept waiting inside the ring. The final result was further delayed by almost 10 minutes as the Haryana coach approached BFI president Ajay Singh to protest, adding yet another to the constantly growing list of grievances against the officiating by several teams.

-Team Sportstar

Published on Jan 09, 2026