The Indian contingent finished their 2023 World Para Archery Championships campaign at Pilsen, Czech Republic, with a total of three medals on Sunday.
This was India’s best-ever performance in the global event bettering their performance in Dubai last year when they won two silver medals.
India also bagged their first-ever Para Archery World Championships gold, thanks to Sarita and Rakesh Kumar, who defeated the pair from Brazil 152-146 in the compound mixed team open event.
Sarita also bagged a bronze medal in women’s compound team event partnering Jyoti. The duo defeated Iran’s Farzaneh Asgari and Maryam Shahrbabaki 147-142 in the third-place playoff.
However, the breakout star for India in the competition was 16-year-old Sheetal.
The first-ever armless archer from India, Sheetal went on to win a silver medal in women’s individual compound following a hard-fought 138-140 loss to Turkey’s Onzur Cure.
Having started archery just over a year ago, Sheetal had defeated teammate Sarita in the semi-final of the women’s compound event.
Three World Records
Besides the medals, Indian archers also set three new world records in the ranking rounds and earned themselves six quota places for the upcoming 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Sarita was a part of all the three world records.
She not only set a new women’s individual compound world record with a score of 697, but also combined with Kumar and Sheetal to break the existing world records in mixed and women’s compound team events respectively.
While all the medal winners secured quota places for the 2024 Paralympics Games, three other archers - Tokyo Paralympics men’s recurve silver medallist Harvinder Singh, Pooja in women’s recurve, and Shyam Sundar Swami in men’s compound, also booked their berth for the quadrennial event in Paris.
