Indian duo of Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar wins bronze

Indian duo Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar win Paralympic bronze in archery after a thrilling comeback against Italy.

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 here on Monday (September 2, 2024).

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.

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.