Ojas Deotale, the current world champion, prevailed in the 10K-a-Day Shoot-off at the 2024 Vegas Shoot.
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Rising star of world compound archery, Ojas Deotale, recently earned another achievement in his young career. At his first go-round at the Indoor World Series Archery Championship taking place in Las Vegas, the 21-year-old snagged the top prize in the shoot-off on Sunday. During the venerable 58th Vegas Shoot, Deotale outperformed a whopping 105 archers from all over to stand first and deliver a proud moment for Indian archery.
Ojas’s gold-medal performance came with a $10,000 check. In the intense one-day contest, archers had only one arrow per round. After the first round, 27 competitors were cut. By round two, it was down to just 11 hopefuls, including Deotale. The final round brought a gripping face-off with ex-world champ Stephan Hansen of Denmark. Cool as can be, Ojas won with a perfect dot-X shot, while Hansen just fell short.
In an exciting fourth round, ex-world champions Stefan Hansen and Tejas Deotale faced off in archery. Tejas Deotale won with impressive skill. Ojas is just 30 arrows shy of reaching the final shootout in Vegas. A wave of cheers and high-fives from fellow Indian team members met Ojas in his celebration. “My heart is still going ‘dum dum dum,'” he joked with the presenter.
Despite constantly hearing about the cash prize, he kept his eyes on the prize: “They kept announcing about the 10k… I just focused on my shooting, that’s it,” Ojas pointed out. His victory is not just personal but inspires the entire Indian archery scene. “As an Indian, I’m very proud… now I’ll focus on the main event tomorrow,” he said, ready for the next challenge.
In other recent news, archers Piyush from Rajasthan and Priya from Jaipur made it onto the Indian compound archery teams for the Asia Cup-Stage 1. Scheduled in Baghdad, Iraq, from February 19-26, the Indian squad will warm up in Pune with coach Anil Joshi before the event.
In late 2022, Ojas Deotale kicked off his stint with India’s senior archery team, scooping up a silver medal on his own and a gold with his team in the men’s compound category. Despite a previous leg injury from an accident in Pune that put his readiness in doubt, Deotale proved his fitness for the competition in Sharjah and went on to shine.
Alongside Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Deotale struck gold in the compound mixed team events both in Turkey’s Antalya and China’s Shanghai during the World Cup Stage 1 and Stage 2. At the 2023 World Archery Championships, he emerged victorious over Poland’s Przemyslaw Konecki in the quarterfinals and knocked out ex-world champ Mike Schloesser from the Netherlands in the semifinals.
In a thrilling final, Deotale nailed a perfect score to edge out Lukasz Przybylski of Poland. However, he stumbled in Berlin, blaming gusty winds for the rough start. Reflecting on their talk, his mom Archana shared a stern piece of advice she gave him about making excuses and how it led to a two-day silence. But triumph changed everything — after clinching the world title, he phoned her, revealing that her image guided his winning shots.
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