Paris Paralympics 2024: Harvinder Singh, Pooja Jatyan Move To Mixed Team Recurve Open Quarter-Finals

New Delhi: Para-archers Harvinder Singh and Pooja Jatyan secured a spot in the Mixed Team Recurve Open quarterfinals at the Paris Paralympics after a thrilling 5-4 shoot-off victory against Australia’s Taymon Kenton-Smith and Amanda Jennings. The Indian duo displayed resilience, advancing to the next round with a hard-fought win.

Harvinder and Pooja will next take on Poland’s Lukasz Ciszek and Milena Olszewska for a place in the semifinals.

The Indian duo began strongly, winning the first two sets with ease. However, a one from Pooja gave the Australian team an opening, allowing them to claim the next two sets and equalize the score at 4-4 by the end of the fourth set.

In the decisive shoot-off, Harvinder led with a solid nine, followed by a seven from Pooja. The Australians couldn’t keep up, with Kenton-Smith scoring only a five and Amanda missing the target entirely. This sealed India’s victory and secured their spot in the quarterfinals.On Wednesday night, Harvinder made history, becoming India’s first-ever Olympic or Paralympic champion in archery. The 33-year-old showed a stellar performance en route to gold medal in the recurve men’s competition at the Paris 2024.

Three years ago at the Tokyo Paralympics, Harvinder Singh made history by earning India’s first-ever medal in archery at either the Olympics or Paralympics with his bronze.

In contrast, the mixed 50m rifle prone SH1 shooting event saw disappointment for India, as Mona Agarwal and Sidhartha Babu missed out on the finals. Mona, a bronze medalist in the women’s 10m air rifle SH1 event, placed 30th with a score of 610.5, while Sidhartha finished 22nd with 615.8 in the 60-shot qualification round.