History-making Indian archer Harvinder Singh’s pursuit of a double medal at the Paris Paralympics ended in heartbreak as he, along with Pooja Jatyan, lost to Slovenia in the shoot-off in a tense recurve mixed team bronze playoff match on Thursday.
After being outplayed by the top-seeded Italy in the semifinals, the fifth-seeded Harvinder and Pooja, who both hail from Haryana, slipped twice from a 2-0 and 4-2 lead to lose to Ziva Lavrinc and Dejan Fabcic 4-5 (19-17) in the bronze medal match.
After clinching the first set 33-30, a couple of stray arrows -- 6 by Pooja and 5 from Harvinder -- allowed Slovenia to bring it on level with a 34-29 win in the second set.
Harvinder continued from where he left in the second set by nailing two 10s, while Pooja hit in the 9 ring twice that brought them back on track with a 38-33 win in the third set that also restored their lead (4-2).
But they failed to close it out, with the duo hitting a 5 and 7 in the fourth set as Slovenia won the fourth set 34-29 to force a shoot-off. Fabic made a strong start in the shoot-off hitting the 9 before Ziva wrapped it up with a perfect 10 as Harvinder and Pooja managed 8 and 9. A day after he became the only Indian archer to win a gold, Harvinder teamed up with Pooja to raise hopes of securing an unparalleled second medal by edging out Australia’s Taymon Kenton-Smith and Amanda Jennings 5-4 (16-5) in the shoot-off in the opening round of 16.
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In the quarters, the Indian duo outclassed higher-seeded Polish rivals in straight sets.
The Polish duo of Milena Olszewska and Lukasz Ciszek struggled for consistency while Harvinder and Pooja maintained their momentum to seal it 6-0.
In the semis, they fought hard before going down against top-seeded Italians Elisabetta Mijno and Stefano Travisani 2-6.
After taking the first set 36-31, Mijno and Travisani nailed four 10s in a row in the second set to race to a 4-0 lead.
With time running out, Pooja and Harvinder fought back when they hit two 9s to take a two-point lead at the halfway mark of the third set.
Pooja then came up with a perfect 10 in her final arrow before Harviner hit the 9-ring to take the third set 37-35 and reduce the deficit to 2-4.
But the top-seeded Italians held their nerve, allowing the Indians no further leeway as they dropped just two points to narrowly edge them out 38-37, securing their place in the final.
India had opened its account with a bronze medal by Rakesh Kumar and Sheetal Devi in the compound mixed team open category on Monday.
In the recurve open class, archers shoot from a standing position at a distance of 70m at a 122cm target made up of 10 concentric circles scoring from 10 points down to 1 point from the centre outwards.
Hailing from a family of farmers from Haryana, Harvinder was just one--and-a-half years old, when he contracted dengue and due to the side effects of some injections administered to him, his legs were left impaired.
Pooja, 27, had on Tuesday lost out in the individual quarterfinals.
In 1997, when Pooja was just two months old, she became a victim of medical negligence when she was administered a wrong injection for high fever, resulting in polio in her left leg.
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