Sharvari Shende wrapped up India’s campaign at the World Archery Youth Championships 2025 with the gold medal in the Under-18 women’s recurve event in Winnipeg, Canada, on Sunday.
The 16-year-old archer became only the third Indian world champion in the women’s U18 recurve category, following in the footsteps of Deepika Kumari (2011) and Komalika Bari (2021).
Seeded 20th after qualifying, Shende stunned higher-ranked opponents en route to the gold medal.
She defeated the Republic of Korea’s third seed Kim Yewon in the final, holding her nerve in a shoot-off to win 10-9 after the match ended 5-5. In the semi-final, she had already toppled top seed Kim Minjeong of South Korea 7-3.
“Am I really the world champion? Oh my God, it was amazing,” said the 16-year-old Indian archer while speaking to World Archery after the final.
“I’m just thinking that I will shoot my best. One arrow will decide if I’m going to be a world champion or not. My coach was telling me to be confident, believe in yourself, you’re going to be the champion,” said Shende.
“I always had a dream to become the world champion and this is my last year in the cadet, so I feel very proud, I feel I make my India proud.”
Earlier in the week, Shende also helped India secure a bronze in the U18 women’s recurve archery team event. On the final day, Gatha Khadake and Agastay Singh added another bronze by edging Chinese Taipei in the U18 mixed recurve category.
The two medals took India’s overall tally at the World Archery Youth Championships 2025 to eight – four gold, two silver and two bronze.
India also dominated the previous edition held in Limerick, Ireland, two years back, claiming six golds, including three in individual events.
The World Archery Youth Championships 2025 was the 19th edition of the biennial meet that has been held since 1991. A total of 570 top youth archers from 63 countries around the world competed for medals in Winnipeg.
The next World Archery Youth Championships will take place in Antalya, Turkiye, in 2027.
World Archery Youth Championships 2025: Indian medal winners
- Recurve U18 women’s individual: Sharvari Shende – gold medal
- Compound U21 men’s team: Kushal Dalal, Apar Mihir Nitin, Ganesh Mani Ratnam Thirumuru – gold medal
- Compound U18 men’s team: Mohit Dagar, Yogesh Joshi, Devansh Singh – gold medal
- Compound U21 women’s individual: Chikitha Taniparthi – gold medal
- Compound U18 women’s individual: Prithika Pradeep – silver medal
- Compound U18 mixed team: Prithika Pradeep-Mohit Dagar – silver medal
- Recurve U18 women’s team: Sharvari Shende, Gatha Khadake, Jiana Kumar – bronze medal
- Recurve U18 mixed team: Gatha Khadake-Agastay Singh – bronze medal