Jamshedpur, May 30: The Indian men’s recurve team, including Rahul Banerjee and Jayant Talukdar of Jharkhand, on Friday scripted history by winning gold in the third leg of the World Cup at Antalya, Turkey, upsetting Malaysia.

There are four legs of the world cup held every year.

Former world champions Korea, Italy, USA, France and Australia were eclipsed by the exploits of the Indian archers. With a total of 2,035 points, India bettered the previous record of 2,031 points of Korea in 1996.

Talukdar and Banerjee are products of Tata Archery Academy and employed with Tata Steel. The other hero of the team — Mangal Singh Champia — also hails from Jharkhand, but he currently represents railways.

According to Sanjeeva Singh, the joint secretary of the Archery Association of India, Champia finished first, ahead of Park Kyung-Mo and Im Dong Hyun of Korea and team-mate Talukdar.

Talukdar was ranked first with 342 points after 36 arrows. With 341 points, Champia temporarily clinched the second place. Serrano of Mexico, a 2007 World Cup finalist, was a point behind at third place (340). Singh said after a strong battle Champia and Park Kyung-Mo were levelled 684 points at the end. However, Champia took the top slot, thanks to his superb skills.

Two other Koreans — Im (680) and Lee (675) — clinched third and fifth places, respectively. Talukdar (678) and Banerjee (673) finished fourth and eighth.

Singh, also the secretary of the Jharkhand Archery Association, said in the team event the Indians were on top at the half-way mark with a four-point advantage (1189 against Kora’s 1185).

India’s women archers, however, failed to meet the expectations, finishing 13th. Ace archer Dola Banerjee even failed to qualify among the top 64 archers, he added.