Sheetal gives India perfect start

Paris, August 29

Advertisement

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 from Jammu and Kashmir, who shoots with her legs as she was born without arms, scored 703 points out of a 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.

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.

The top-four finishers in the ranking round got byes from the Round of 32 and they will feature in the Round of 16 on Saturday.

Devi will face the winner of match between Mariana Zuniga of Chile and Choi Na Mi of Korea. Zuniga had won a silver in the women’s individual compound open in the Tokyo Paralympics.

The 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.

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.

Comeback win

Indian para-shuttlers, including Tokyo silver medallist Suhas Yathiraj, made a strong start, with eight singles players securing victories in their respective opening group matches.

In the SL4 category, all three Indians — Suhas, Sukant Kadam and Tarun — won their opening matches. Nitesh Kumar (SL3), Palak Kohli (SL4), Thulasimathi Murugesan (SU5), Manisha Ramadass (SU5), and Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan (SH6) also cleared the first hurdle later in the day.

The highlight of the day was a gritty performance by Kadam. The 31-year-old from Maharashtra, who suffered a knee injury after a fall in a cricket field at the age of 10, recovered from an opening game setback to defeat Malaysia’s Mohammed Amin Burhanuddin 17-21 21-15 22-20 in his opening Group B match.

“Playing at this level, with the crowd cheering for us, is fantastic! I was determined to give it my all, with 100% speed and never giving up. We were prepared for this situation and knew how to handle the pressure and the crowd,” Kadam said.

Suhas, a 2007 batch IAS officer, breezed past Indonesia’s Hikmat Ramdani 21-7, 21-5 in his Group A match, which lasted just 22 minutes.

Jyoti finishes 10th

India’s Jyoti Gaderiya bowed out of the women’s C1-3 3000m individual pursuit cycling event after finishing 10th and last in the qualifying round.

Jyoti clocked 4 minutes, 53.929 second to complete the 3000m distance at 10th spot.

China’s Wang Xiaomei (3:44.660) and Great Britain’s Daphne Schrager (3:45.133) will contest for the gold medal, while Germany’s Maike Hausberger (3:49.444) and Switzerland’s Flurina Rigling (3:50.347) will fight for the bronze.

Aruna loses in Round of 16

India’s Aruna Tanwar suffered a heavy 0-19 defeat to Nurcihan Ekinci of Turkey in a Round of 16 contest in the women’s K 44-47kg category. The K44 category includes athletes who have impairments in one arm above the elbow.