Cojuangco winS PH’s first archery silver in Asian Games

ARCHER Amaya Amparo Cojuangco bagged the silver medal in the compound women’s final at the 2026 Asian Games on Thursday morning at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Multipurpose Square. The 40-year-old Cojuangco fell short of stealing the gold from Indonesia’s Nurisa Dian Ashrifah, who prevailed 139-137.  This is the first silver medal in archery for the Philippines in the Asian Games. The last time the country won a medal here was in 2014 when Paul Marton Dela Cruz bagged the bronze in the men’s compound. The final match was tight all throughout. In fifth game, however, Ashrifah scored an almost perfect 29 with a nine on her first arrow followed two by 10s. The Filipina scored a nine on all her three shots for a 27. Ashrifah finished with a 28-27-29-26-29 scorecard, while Cojuanco tallied 28-26-29-27-27. Cojuanco reached the championship match after a tense battle against South Korea’s Park Jungyoon, 142-141, in the semifinals. She completely dominated the match in the quarterfinals against Iran’s Bita Asheghzadeh Oskouei, 146-135, firing three perfect 30-point ends in the second, third, and fifth games. Compound archery uses cumulative scoring, not a best-of-five set system, with the match having five ends, three arrows/three shots per end. Compound uses an 80-centimeter (cm) target, compared to recurve matches which feature...