India’s Recurve Para archers Harvinder Singh and Pooja compensated their poor show in Individual events with a Recurve Open Mixed Team gold medal at the ongoing 7th Fazza Para Archery World Ranking Tournament- Dubai 2021 here.
Harvinder and Pooja took advantage of the perfect weather and shot 32-33-32 and 30 to take the Gold against Turkey’s Merve Nur Eroglu and Sadik Savas (37-30-35-29).
Later, Shyam Sundar Swami and Jyoti Baliyan added a silver to India’s tally finishing second to Russia (Stepanida Artakhinova and Nail Gatin) 158-155 in the Compound Open Mixed Team Final.
Said Harvinder, an Asian Para Games gold medallist: “The weather was perfect today and we took the advantage of that. I and Pooja have trained back home in similar weather. We won the semi-finals via tie-up and we became more confident once we were in the final. The pressure was also less as we knew that we would have a medal.
“For me personally, I was getting an opportunity to get my old rhythm back. I had the same feeling which I felt during my gold medal match at the Indonesia 2018 Asian Para Games. It was a good learning experience here.”
Turkey sweep Combined W1 Podium
Meanwhile, the Turkish team swept the podium in Combined W1 event at the Dubai Club for People of Determination grounds on the day.
Reigning world champion and current no.1 Bahattin Hekimoglu, Yigit Caner Aydin, current world no. 3, and Nihat Turkmenoglu claimed the top three positions as the visiting team claimed two more medals in the day – W1 Mixed Team gold and Recurve Mixed Team silver.
Asked the reason behind the Turkish team’s success, the silver medallist Aydin said: “Hard work.”
“The team works really hard and knows what they want to achieve. Our focus is clear. We now want to continue this momentum at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games,” said the 28-year-old from Istanbul, who will seek a quota at the last qualifying event in the Czech Republic.
The Men’s and Women’s Recurve and Compound Open Finals will be played on Friday, the last day of the Championships.
On Friday, back-to-back Paralympic champion Zahra Nemati from Iran will be in action in the Recurve Open Women’s final, while India’s Swami and Rakesh will vie for the Compound Men’s Open gold. India’s Baliyan will face Russia’s Stepanida in the Compound Women Open gold medal match.