It was a tough time for archer Atanu Das after his failure to win a medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

He changed his approach in training and even travelled to different locations to get back into the groove.

On Thursday at the Sanskardam Sports Complex near Ahmedabad, the Bengal archer won the men’s individual recurve gold, beating Gurcharan Besra of Services in the gold medal match of the 36th National Games.

In badminton, the top seed B Sai Praneeth, representing Telangana, and Chhattisgarh’s Aakarshi Kashyap claimed the men’s and women’s singles badminton gold medals, respectively.

Praneeth, a former World Championships bronze medallist, had to work hard for his 21-11, 12-21, 21-16 victory over Karnataka’s Mithun Manjunath in the men’s singles final.

Aakarshi saw off top seed Malvika Bansod of Maharashtra 21-8, 22-20 in the women’s singles final.

Praneeth’s success meant that Telangana grabbed three gold medals in badminton.