Para archer Harvinder Singh
Harvinder made history by winning India’s first-ever archery medal — a bronze — at the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago.
Tokyo Games bronze medallist Harvinder Singh clinched his third consecutive victory with unwavering composure to advance to the semi-finals in his quest for back-to-back Paralympic medals in the men’s recurve open archery competition here on Wednesday.
Harvinder, the first-ever Indian Paralympic medallist in archery, beat world No 9 Hector Julio Ramirez of Colombia 6-2 in the quarterfinals. Earlier, he had knocked out Tseng Lung-Hui of Chinese Taipei 7-3 in round of 32 before overcoming an opening set deficit to edge out Setiawan Setiawan of Indonesia 6-2 in the last-16 round.
Facing a late surge from Hector, Harvinder nailed a 10 in the final arrow of the fourth set to secure a win and inch closer to a successive Paralympics medal.
He will face Mohammed Reza Arab Ameri of Iran in the semifinal.
Earlier in his opening round, Harvinder drew the first set 25-25, before he shot one 10 and 9 to win the second 27-26 and take 3-1 lead.
Lung-Hui dished out a near-perfect third set when he dropped just one point to win it 29-26 and bring the scores level at 3-3.
But Lung-Hui faltered in the next two sets as Harvinder held his nerves to win 24-23 and 25-17 and seal his last-16 berth.
In recurve open class, archers shoot from a standing position at a distance of 70m at a 122cm target made up of 10 concentric circles, scoring from 10 points down to 1 point from the centre outwards.
Hailing from a family of farmers from Ajit Nagar in Haryana, Harvinder faced significant adversity early in life.
When he was just one and a half years old, he contracted dengue and received injections for treatment. Unfortunately, the side effects of these injections resulted in a loss of function in his legs.
Despite this early challenge, he found a passion for archery after getting inspiration from the 2012 London Paralympics.
He made his debut at the 2017 Para Archery World Championship, finishing seventh.
A gold medal at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Para Games followed, and during the COVID-19 lockdown, his father turned their farm into an archery range to support his training.
Harvinder made history by winning India’s first-ever archery medal — a bronze — at the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago.
Alongside his sporting success, he is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in economics.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
