New Delhi: Dola Banerjee created history claiming the gold medal in women's individual recurve competition at the archery World Cup final in Dubai on Saturday.
Dola beat Eun Young Choi of Korea 110-109 in a closely fought final to claim top honours.
She had earlier beaten Russian Natalya Erdyniyeva 108-106 to advance to the title round.
Choi had beaten China's Juan Juan Zhang 114-105 to enter the final.
The Russian archer defeated Zhang 106-103 to win the bronze medal.
This is the first occasion an Indian had claimed the coveted title and would be a great morale booster for her as well as the national archery contingent preparing for next year's Beijing Olympics.
The World Cup final followed four legs of competition in Korea, Turkey, Italy and the UK. Dola was the lone Indian in the fray in the elite field.
Dola had came from behind in the fourth leg in Dover, England, to defeat Zhang in a nerve-wrecking match (111-110) and win the gold medal.
She gathered 37 points despite missing the third leg in Italy and was placed fourth among the finalists.
In the final, all matches were 12-arrow contests, shot in four rounds of three arrows.
India's Jayanta Talukdar had reached the World Cup finals in the men's individual recurve competition last year and finished fourth.
An emotional Dola said "I am delighted to be the first Indian to bring such glory to India."
"Let's see what sort of reception I get on my return home," she said after her win.
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