Nagoya, Oct 20 Defending champion Sheetal Devi and Games debutant Swati Chaudhary stormed into the finals of their respective individual events as India’s para archers assured the country of five medals at the Asian Para Games here on Tuesday.
The 19-year-old Sheetal, who equalled the world record and created a new Asian record in the qualification round, defeated Japan’s Shinohara Aya 145-137 in the women’s compound semifinal to set up a gold-medal clash with Singapore’s Alim Nur Syahidah.
Swati, who is making her Games debut, also assured India of at least a silver medal after beating South Korea’s Eunhee Lee 6-2 in the women’s W1 semifinal. She will face China’s Mengkan in the final.
W1 classification is for athletes with significant impairment in functional strength, range of motion, or limb loss across all four limbs.
India’s recurve and compound women’s doubles pairs also advanced to their respective gold-medal matches with semifinal victories.
The teenage pairing of world number one Sheetal, who was born without arms, and Payal Nag brushed aside Thailand’s Phannibha Srathongmaew and Wasana Khuthawisap 151-135 in the compound women’s doubles semifinal.
Pooja and Bhawna, meanwhile, got the better of the Iranian pair of Mohadeseh Babahabib and Rahimi Ghahderijani Somayeh 6-2 in the women’s recurve semifinal.
Paralympic gold-medallist Harvinder Singh and Vijay Sundi defeated their South Koreans opponents 5-4 to make their way into the men’s doubles recurve final.
However, the men’s recurve doubles pair of Shyam Sundar Swami and Toman Kumar lost their semifinal 155-156 to Indonesia’s Ken Swagumilang and Arif Firmansyah and will compete for bronze.
India’s recurve and compound mixed teams advanced to the semifinals with victories over Thailand and Japan, respectively.
Harvinder and Bhawna defeated their Thai opponents 6-0 in the recurve mixed team quarterfinals.
Sheetal progressed to the compound mixed team semifinals alongside Toman Kumar, with the Indian pair defeating Japan 154-147.
However, Harvinder, Toman, Swami and Bhawna lost their individual matches.
In the recurve singles quarterfinals, Harvinder went down 5-6 in a shoot-off to China’s Yun Duo in the men’s event, while Bhawna lost 2-6 to Mongolia’s Selengee Demberel in the women’s last eight match.
In the men’s compound semifinals, Toman lost 144-149 to China’s Ai Xinliang, who had defeated Swami 147-146 in the quarterfinals.
(PTI News)
