The Indian duo of Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar staged a remarkable comeback after the heartbreak in the semifinals to claim the bronze medal with a 156-155 win over Italy’s Eleonora Sarti and Matteo Bonacina in mixed team compound archery competition at Paralympics on Monday. It is only the second time that India has won a medal in Paralympics in archery. Harvinder Singh bagged an individual bronze at the Tokyo edition of the Games three years ago. Sheetal also became the first Indian woman to win an archery medal at the quadrennial showpiece as coach Kuldeep Vedhwan rejoiced at the stands.

India won after the 17-year-old Sheetal’s shot in the final end was upgraded from 9 to 10 following a revision. Something similar had happened in the semifinal too, against Iran earlier in the evening, but the Indians were at the receiving end on that occasion.

The Indians shot 10, 9, 10 10 in the final end to reach 155. The Italian pair responded with 9, 9, 10, 10 to draw level at 155-155. It was at that point that the judge decided to take a closer look at Sheetal’s shot and concluded that it was a 10, leading to India’s victory.

A triumph of teamwork and tenacity!

Rakesh Kumar & Sheetal Devi, your Bronze Medal in the Para Archery Mixed Team Compound Open at #paralympics2024 speaks volumes about your hard work & dedication.

Your journey together has been inspiring, showing that with mutual support &… pic.twitter.com/EFut4er5jk

— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) September 2, 2024

Before that, with just four arrows left, the Indians were trailing by a point with Sarti displaying awesome form even as her partner Bonacina struggled a bit. But the Indian pair held on to emerge winners in the end.

It was a great comeback by the Indians after they went down in shoot-off following a dramatic semifinal clash against Iran’s Fatemeh Hemmati and Hadi Nori.

Both Rakesh and Sheetal failed to win medal in the individual event at the Games this year.

Earlier in the evening, the Indians looked on course to make the final but a fine Iranian rally and revision of score by a judge came in their way.

The match went into shoot-off after the scores were tied 152-152.

It seemed like the Indians had won it after the Iranians shot a nine with their fourth arrow in the final end. However, much to the disappointment of the Indian duo, the target judge revised a shot of nine from Iran (their second arrow in the final end) to 10 after evaluation, taking the contest into shoot-off.

Both the teams had perfect scores in shoot-off but Fatemeh’s arrow hit the centre. Her shot was much closer to the bulls eye, paving the way for Iran’s passage to the final.

In their last eight match, the Indian pair combined well to progress to the semifinals with a 154-143 win over Indonesia’s Teodora Audi Ayudia Ferellyin and Ken Swagumilang.

The top seeds in the mixed compound open event, Sheetal and Rakesh, displayed fine form en route to the semifinal.

The Iranian duo prevailed over Brazil’s Jane Karla Gogel and Reinaldo Vagner Charao Ferreira 153-151 in their quarterfinal clash.

The Indians sealed the win with a perfect 40 in the fourth and final end.

In open class (compound bows, for archers with little strength in the arms), archers shoot from a sitting position at a distance of 50m at an 80cm five-ring target made up of the 10-6 point bands.

Sheetal, 17, was born in 2007 with phocomelia, a rare congenital disorder leading to underdeveloped limbs. The condition resulted in her arms not fully forming.

The 39-year-old Rakesh suffered a spinal cord injury and after recovering in 2009 he realised he would be wheelchair-bound for life, which plunged him into depression and even forced him to contemplate taking his own life.

Sheetal Devi drew massive praise on social media© X (Twitter)

Sheetal Devi hit bullseye© X (Twitter)

India suffered heartbreak from the archery arena as Sarita Kumari’s splendid run ended in quarterfinals, while armless wonder Sheetal Devi crashed out of the last-16 in the compound women’s open category at the Paralympics in Paris Paralympics 2024 on Saturday. Faridabad’s Sarita, who qualified as ninth seed, had a dominating outings in the first and second rounds before top-seed Oznur Cure Girdi of Korea halted her dream run in the last eight. Oznur, who smashed the world record to top the qualifying round with a score of 704 out of a maximum 720 points, shot three perfect 10s in the second end to take a healthy five-point lead.

Sarita took the third end and matched Oznur’s 30 with a perfect fourth end, but the Turkey archer remained four points in the lead, riding on her strong starts and wrapped it up with a 29 in the fifth end.

Sheetal, who draws the arrow with her toes, endured a blip in the second end where she shot the 7-point red ring to go down to Tokyo silver medalist Mariana Zuniga of Chile 137-138 in the pre-quarters.

All eyes were on Asian Para Games double gold medalist Sheetal, who also had bettered the previous world record of 698 shooting 703, to get a bye into the last-16 round.

Sheetal started out on a positive note as she hit two X dropped one point to take the opening set 29-28.

But her 7-point in the second arrow gave the Chilean seasoned archer the much-needed opening as she won the second end 27-26 to make it level (55-all).

It was a neck-and-neck affair for the duo in the next eight arrows, before Mariana edged out Sheetal in the final arrow by shooting a 9 as the Paralympics debutant Sheetal slipped to the 8-ring to lose by one-point.

On a day second seed Sheetal suffered an early elimination, ninth seed Sarita put up a dominated from the start to down Italy’s Eleonora Sarti 141-135 in a one-sided affair in her pre-quarters.

The ninth seeded Sarita, who won a team silver medal at the Asian Para Games last year, dropped just one point to take a four-point lead in the first end.

There was no looking back as she stretched the lead to five points in the second end where she shot one X (closer to the centre).

Her higher-ranked Italian rival pulled off two 10s and took the third end, but Sarita remained in control and sealed the issue with two solid ends.

Sarita earlier knocked out Nur Jannaton Abdul Jalil of Malaysia 138-124 in her first round clash.

In the open class, archers shoot from a sitting position at a distance of 50m at an 80cm five-ring target made up of the 10-6 point bands.

India’s armless archer Sheetal Devi finished second in the women’s individual compound open ranking round with a stunning performance to directly make a round of 16 entry in the Paris Paralympics on Thursday. The 17-year-old Devi from Jammu and Kashmir, who shoots with her legs as she was born without arms, scored a total of 703 points out of possible 720 to finish second behind Oznur Girdi Cure of Turkey, who set a ranking round world record of 704 points. In fact, Devi also got past the ranking round world record of 698 set by Phoebe Pine Paterson of Great Britain earlier this month, but the Turkish archer overtook her to claim the coveted mark.

Devi shot 59 10s and 24 Xs while her Turkish opponent had 56 10s and 29 Xs in the 72-arrow contest on the opening day of competitions at the Paralympic Games. The top-four finishers in the ranking round, including Devi, got byes from the round of 32 competition and they will feature in the round of 16 on Saturday.

Devi will face the winner of round of 32 match between Mariana Zuniga of Chile and Choi Na Mi of Korea, who finished 15th and 18th respectively in the ranking round.

Zuniga had won a silver in the women’s individual compound open in the Tokyo Paralympics.

Other Indian in the fray, Sarita finished ninth with a score of 682 and will face Abdul Jalil Nur Jannaton of Malaysia in the round of 32 on Friday.

Devi had become a sensation during last year’s Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China, where she became the first Indian woman to win two gold medals in a single edition of the Games. She had won a third medal — a silver — also.

She had won gold medals in the women’s individual compound as well as mixed team event and a silver in the women’s doubles in Hangzhou.

Discovered at a military camp in a remote part of Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir and adopted by the Indian Army in her childhood, Devi also became the first armless woman to win a Para World Archery Championships medal last year.

Devi was born with phocomelia syndrome, a rare congenital disorder which kept her limbs underdeveloped.

In the men’s individual recurve open ranking round, Tokyo Paralympics bronze medallist Harvinder Singh finished ninth with a score of 637.

He faces Tseng Lung-Hui of Chinese Taipei in the round of 32 on September 4.

In men’s individual compound open ranking round, Rakesh Kumar and Shyam Sundar Swami finished fifth and 15th with scores of 696 and 688 respectively.

In women’s individual recurve open ranking round, Pooja finished seventh with a score of 585.

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.

Devi competes in standing position while Oznur Girdi Cure of Turkey, who finished first in the ranking round, is of W2 category.

Competitions include a ranking round where the archers shoot 72 arrows (12 ends of six arrows each) over distances of 50m or 70m. Each archer has four minutes to shoot their six arrows.

After the ranking round, para-archers compete head-to-head in elimination rounds consisting of five ends, with athletes using three arrows per end.

Para-archery events include recurve and compound bows, as well as mixed team.