The wall built by India, the world's dominant force in compound archery, proved too high. Korea's mixed, men's and women's compound team squads all drew India in either the final or the semifinals and lost every match, missing out on gold. For a Korean archery program that leads the world in recurve events, strengthening its competitiveness in compound has emerged as a challenge. India has won seven of the 12 gold medals awarded in compound archery since the discipline became an official event at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games through the 2023 Hangzhou Games, sweeping all five events in Hangzhou.
In the compound finals and semifinals held on the 30th at the multipurpose plaza of Okazaki Central Park in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, Korea lost to India across the board, finishing with silver in the mixed team event, bronze in the women's team event and no medal in the men's team event, where it placed fourth.
The result leaves the compound squad short of its performance at the 2023 Hangzhou Games, where it collected two silvers, in the mixed and men's team events, and one bronze in the women's team event.
The women's compound team of Park Ye-rin of Korea National Sport University, Park Jung-yoon of Changwon City Hall and Kang Yeon-seo of Seongsa Middle School fought a tight semifinal against India but fell 233-234. In the bronze-medal match, the team edged Taiwan 229-228 by a single point to take bronze.
In the mixed team event, Choi Yong-hee of Hyundai Steel and Park Jung-yoon beat China in the semifinals before meeting India in the final. The two sides were level at 157-157, forcing a shoot-off decided by a single arrow, and Korea lost 19-20 to take silver. Korea has now reached the final three consecutive times since the mixed team event was introduced as an official event at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games, without ever winning the title.
The men's team event, the last to be contested, failed to turn the mood around. The squad of Choi Yong-hee, Kim Jong-ho of Hyundai Steel and Choi Eun-kyu of Ulsan Nam-gu Office lost 229-236 to India in the semifinals. Pushed back from the start by India's precise run of 10-point shots, the team had to accept a seven-point defeat. In the bronze-medal match that followed, Korea lost 233-234 to Taiwan and ended up without a medal. It was the first time Korea has failed to win a medal in the men's compound team event at an Asian Games. Korea took silver when compound was introduced at the 2014 Incheon Games, gold at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games and silver again at the 2023 Hangzhou Games.
With the compound mixed team event set to join the program at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, observers say strengthening competitiveness in the discipline is urgent if Korea is to keep its standing as the world's leading archery nation. Euisun Chung, the Hyundai Motor Group chairman who heads the Korea Archery Association, said after the compound mixed team medal ceremony that he keenly felt the need for systematic support. "We are working hard to chase India, which is a world-class team, and it made me think we need to train in better ways," he said. "I felt the association has a lot of work to do going forward."
