GUANGZHOU: India's wait to win a medal in recurve archery at the World Championships has increased as 15-year-old Gatha Khadke lost to world number one Lim Si-hyeon in the pre-quarterfinals here on Friday. Before Gatha could understand anything, it was all over in the blink of an eye.
The Korean, a three-time gold medallist at the Paris Olympics, won the match 6-0 without any difficulty in front of a home crowd. India last won a medal in the recurve category at the World Championships in 2019. Then the men's team of Tarundeep Rai, Atanu Das and Praveen Jadhav won the silver medal in Den Bosch.
Gatha, competing in her second senior international competition, could not hold her own against the Korean. Lim started with three perfect 10s. Gatha could only reply with two 9s and an 8, due to which she lost the first set 26-30.
Gatha could not perform as expected even after this and thus Indian recurve archers returned empty-handed from the World Championship for the third consecutive time. It may be recalled that archer Deepika Kumari had been eliminated in the first round.