Indian para archers Sheetal Devi and Sarita finished second and ninth, respectively in women’s individual compound open ranking round at Paris Paralympics 2024 on Thursday.
The 17-year-old Sheetal, who shoots with her legs as she was born without arms, recorded a new personal best score of 703, finishing a point behind Turkiye’s Oznur Cure Girdi, who set a new world record of 704.
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The previous world record of 698 was set by Great Britain’s Phoebe Paterson Pine earlier this month while the earlier Paralympic Record of 694 belonged to Jessica Stretton, another British para archer, from Tokyo 2020.
Sarita finished with a score of 682.
Seeded second, Sheetal has received a bye and will begin her campaign directly from the round of 16 on Saturday where she will face the winner of round of 32 match between Mariana Zuniga of Chile and Choi Na Mi of Korea. Sarita will be up against Malaysia’s Nur Jannaton Abdul Jalil in the round of 32 on Friday.
In men’s individual compound open ranking round, Rakesh Kumar finished fifth with a score of 696 while Shyam Sundar Swami finished 15th with 688. Rakesh faces Senegal’s Aliou Drame while Swami takes on Thailand’s Comsan Singpirom in the round of 32 on Friday.
Sheetal and Rakesh broke the mixed team compound open ranking round world record with a combined score of 1399. The top-seeded Indian duo will play the winner of the match between Indonesia and Iraq in the quarterfinals on September 2.
Harvinder Singh, who won an individual bronze medal in men’s recurve open at Tokyo Paralympics, finished ninth in the ranking round in Paris with 637. Frenchman Guillaume Toucoullet topped with a new Paralympic Record score of 652.
Harvinder’s opening-round match will be against Chinese Taipei’s Lung-Hui Tseng on September 4.
In women’s recurve, Pooja finished seventh with a score of 585. She has received a bye and will directly play in the round of 16 on September 3. Her opponent will be the winner of the round of 32 match between Turkiye’s Yagmur Sengul and Cuba’s Leydis Lazara Posada Canizares.
In mixed recurve team event, Harvinder and Pooja will take on Australia’s Taymon Kenton-Smith and Amanda Jennings in the round of 16 on September 5.
In para-archery, athletes of two classes -- wheelchair (W1, W2) and open -- can compete (in same event) at the Paralympic Games.
For para-archers competing in wheelchairs, their arms must demonstrate some degree of loss of muscle strength, co-ordination, or range of movement.
Para-archers in open category can compete in a wheelchair, standing up or leaning on a stool. They have either extremely limited movement in their trunk and limbs with normal arm function or balance issues.
(With inputs from PTI)
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