Reigning world champion Sheetal Devi held her nerve in a dramatic shoot-off to clinch gold in the para compound women’s individual event, spearheading India’s impressive finish at the World Archery Para Series Stage III with two gold and four bronze medals
AHMEDABAD — Reigning world champion Sheetal Devi held her nerve in a dramatic shoot-off to clinch gold in the para compound women’s individual event, spearheading India’s impressive finish at the World Archery Para Series Stage III with two gold and four bronze medals on the final day here on Wednesday.
World No. 1 Sheetal was involved in a close final with Kazakhstan’s Aizada Seidan and neither archer gave an inch in the early stages. Both shot perfect 30s for their opening ends and were tied at 59 after the second end.
In the third end, Aizada shot 28 to Sheetal’s 27 to take a one-point lead. The fourth end finished 29-29, with the Indian trailing by one point going into the final end.
Sheetal responded brilliantly on the pressure and scored 29 while Aizada scored 28, tying the scores at 144-144 and forcing a shoot-off.
In the end, the Indian archer got a dramatic victory as Sheetal shot a perfect 10 with the gold medal on the line and Aizada could only manage a nine.
Earlier, Sheetal had bagged bronze in the compound mixed team event with Toman Kumar and with the gold, she got a double at the event.
Sheetal and Toman defeated Iraq’s Sara Al Hamid and Abbas Kadim 157-145 in the bronze-medal match. The Indian duo scored 39 in each of the first three ends and a perfect 40 in the last, conceding just three points in four ends.
Paralympics champion Harvinder Singh also played a key role in India’s impressive show and paired with Bhawna to clinch gold in the para recurve mixed team event.
The Indian pair dominated China's Liang Qiurong and Xia Lei in the final, winning convincingly 6-0.
Harvinder and Bhawna won the first set 35-31 and the second 36-33. That completed a clean sweep, the third set ending 34-32.
Bhawna later added another medal to her tally, beating compatriot Rajshree Rathod 6-0 in the all-Indian bronze-medal playoff of para recurve women.
Toman Kumar bagged yet another bronze in the para compound men’s individual event, defeating Iraq’s Abbas Kadhim 143-138. That was his second medal of the meet.