At the Para-Archery World Championship in 2023, Rakesh Kumar and Sarita Adhana make history by winning the gold medal in the mixed team compound archery competition. They won the competition’s gold medal, becoming the first Indians in history to do so. In the championship game versus Brazil, they triumphed 152-146
Together with Jyoti, Sarita won a bronze medal in the women’s compound team competition. In the third-place playoff, the team defeated Iran’s Maryam Shahrbabaki and Farzaneh Asgari 147-142.
After a spirited 138-140 loss against Turkey’s Onzur Cure, Sheetal, 16, who was the first armless archer from India, went on to win a silver medal in women’s individual compound.
Indian archers won six quota spots for the forthcoming 2024 Paris Paralympics in addition to three new world records in the ranking rounds and medals. Sarita was part of all these records.
She not only broke the previous record for the women’s compound solo event with a score of 697, but she also worked alongside Kumar and Sheetal to beat the record for the mixed compound team event and the women’s compound team event.
The Tokyo Paralympics men’s recurve silver medalist Harvinder Singh, Pooja in women’s recurve, and Shyam Sundar Swami in men’s compound, all gained quota spots for the 2024 Paralympics Games. Three additional archers also confirmed their spots for the quadrennial tournament in Paris.
Featured Image: Daily Excelsior