Mumbai, Oct. 3 -- Forget, for a second, about the gold medallists. To understand the magnitude of this result, one just had to glance through the silver medallists on the podium. Glum faces all, hardly any sign of celebrating being second best. The Koreans, unbeaten 10-time champions at the Olympics, and unbeaten at the Asian Games since 1998, aren't used to this. The Indians, who went only as far as the bronze medal before, too aren't used to this. There's always a first time. That time, for Indian women's recurve archery, arrived on Friday. At an Asian Games final. And Ankita Bhakat, Kumkum Mohod and Kirti Sharma seized it to historic proportions. India stunned South Korea, the hitherto invincible powerhouses of recurve archery, 5-3 to win an unprecedented gold at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. India's first-ever Asian Games title in recurve set the tone for Indians to rise to the podium across all events on Friday. The mixed team of Dhiraj Bommadevara and Kumkum took silver, beating Japan 5-3 in the semi-final before losing to China 5-3 in the final. The men's team of Dhiraj, Neeraj Chauhan and Yashdeep Bhoge swept past Iran 6-0 but lost to holders South Korea 5-1 in the final. That made the women's feat stand out even more. Reverberations of which were felt across the country-from Maharashtra's Amravati, to Jind's Pillukhera in Haryana, to the famed Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur. It's here that these champions, in different stages of their careers, were formed and shaped. Two of them, 17-year-old Kumkum and 19-year-old Kirti, were in their first Asian Games. Kumkum's father, who runs a sweet box manufacturing business and was busy distributing sweets himself on Friday, wanted his daughter to pick up archery. Kirti's father, a farmer in Haryana, hesitantly sent his daughter to the SAI centre in Hazaribagh with coach Udham Singh so that she could pursue the sport she was good at without even once watching her compete. Ankita, 28, part of the 2023 bronze-winning team, has been India's most consistent female recurve archer over the last few years but sought a big-stage medal. The trio came through the domestic trials in May. They hadn't competed enough as a team, which reflected in their two World Cup outings. Udham, their coach for five months on account of Kirti topping the trials, sat them all down during the pre-Asian Games camp. "For one month, I made them shoot arrows together, eat together, stay together, and speak about each other's good and bad days," Udham told HT from Aichi. The teamwork was on show in the 5-1 semi-final win over China. And against Korea's Oh Yejin, Lee Yunji, Kang Chaeyoung. Kirti was shooting 7s and 8s, yet Kumkum's two 10s at the end of the first two sets earned India a point. Udham changed the order and put Kirti first up. She began the third set that India won with a 10. Korea were fighting, but Kumkum (scoring a brilliant 78/80) signed off with another 10. It brought India level from the fourth set and placed the team on an unparalleled pedestal after the final. "Kumkum's mindset is such that she enjoys playing more against stronger teams. And she proved it," Prafull Dange, her coach, said. There's none stronger than Korea in the discipline. From almost throwing in the towel merely looking across, Indians are starting to look inward with more belief. Adding to that belief is some wins of late. The women's team, featuring Kumkum and Ankita, beat Korea at the Shanghai World Cup this year. Ankita went past Paris Games silver medallist Nam Suhyeon for the Asian Championships gold last year. "Under pressure, even Koreans can have nerves and fear," said Purnima Mahato, former archer and Ankita's coach. "Today's Indian archers have shown that what matters is how they can control their shots." Today's archers, teens Kumkum and Kirti, got into the team beating seasoned campaigners in the trials. Like in Korea, where many Olympic medallists were beaten in the trials, competition is only increasing in India....