India won two gold, two silver and one bronze medal on Tuesday in the World Archery Para Series (Stage III) held in Ahmedabad. Men’s compound and recurve teams won gold medals while Swati Chaudhary won two medals. Reigning world champions Toman Kumar and Shyam Sundar Swamy won the men’s compound team gold medal by defeating Iraq 152-139. While Harvinder Singh and Vijay Sundi won the men’s recurve team title by defeating Slovakia 6-2.
The women’s recurve team of Bhavana and Pooja won the silver medal after losing 0-6 to China, while Swati and Adil Mohammad Nazir Ansari finished runner-up in the mixed team W1 (recurve/compound) event and had to settle for silver. After this, Swati returned in the afternoon session and won the bronze medal in the individual W1 category. Playing under the Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) flag, she defeated Elena Krutova of Russia 6-2. The pair of Sheetal Devi and Payal Nag also had to win the bronze medal in the women’s compound team event as they had to face defeat from China in the playoff for the third place.
Swami – The day started with Toman’s gold.
Earlier in the day on Tuesday, Swamy and Toman won the gold medal in the men’s compound team event with an impressive victory over Iraq’s Abbas Kadhim and Anwar Aldavod. The Indians started slowly and scored 8 in the first round, but soon found their rhythm. He lost only five points in the next 12 arrows and took a strong lead. After this, Swamy and Toman continued to score well and their accurate arrows left little scope for a comeback for Iraq.
Harvinder – Sundi also won gold
Harvinder and Sundi made a comeback after falling behind in the opening set and defeated Slovakia’s David Ivan and Dennis Ivan 6-2. He won the match 34-37, 36-31, 38-34, 35-31. India had to struggle in the beginning. Scored 7 in the first set and no arrows were hit on 10, giving Slovakia an early lead.
But the Indian team soon got into its shooting rhythm and two-time Paralympic medalist Harvinder led it. The turning point in the match came when India scored 10 three times in the third set and took a lead of 4-2. He maintained his composure in the fourth set and came back to win the gold medal.
Bhavna- Pooja had to be satisfied with silver
After losing to China 0-6 (23-34, 33-35, 30-31) in a one-sided final, Bhavana and Pooja had to be content with the silver medal. The Indian team struggled to find the scoring rhythm right from the first set, in which they scored 4, 5 and 6. In the second set he improved by scoring 8 thrice and 9 once, but could not bridge the gap in points.
India also had to struggle in the third set, in which they scored 5 and 7. He could not score 10 even once during the entire final and China easily won the gold medal.
Swati won two medals in one day
Swati and Adil Mohammad Nazir Ansari won the silver medal in the mixed team W1 (recurve/compound) event. They lost 1-5 (31-38, 33-37, 33-33) to Czech Republic’s Saraca Pultar Musilova and David Drahoninsky. The Czech team took a 4-0 lead by winning the first two rounds. India made a comeback and got a draw in the third round, but they could not take the match to the decisive round and Czech Republic won the gold medal.
Let us tell you, W1 (Recurve/Compound) category is a special class of para-archery for athletes with severe physical disability. W1 archers compete in a wheelchair and can use a recurve or compound bow in the same event.
After this, Swati returned in the afternoon session and won her second medal of the day by defeating Elena 6-2 in the W1 bronze medal match. Swati won the first round 28-25, while the next two rounds were tied 27-27 and 26-26. Then he won 26-24 in the decisive last round and won the bronze medal. In this way Swati won silver and bronze medals in a single day.
Meanwhile, in the women’s compound team event, Sheetal and Payal narrowly missed out on a medal after losing the bronze medal playoff to China’s Wang Huiting and Gao Fangxia. The Indian pair struggled to maintain a consistent score in their 16 balls and were unable to play the high-scoring ends required to stay in the contest. Her best performance came in the second end, when she was just one point behind with a score of 73-74. However, due to poor performance in the third end, China won the bronze medal.