Following on the success of India’s compound archers at the recently-concluded 19^th Asian Games, the country’s para archers will look to do an encore when the archery competition gets underway at the Hangzhou 2022 Para Asian Games from October 23 to 28.

A total of 133 archers from 23 nations will be vying for glory over six days with 15 gold medals at stake at the Fuyang Shooting and Archery range in Hangzhou.

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Whilst the home nation’s archers are expected to rule the field, some old rivalries including Iran’s Zahra Nemati vs China’s Wu Chunyan in women’s individual recurve W1 competition will be on display.

At the Pilsen 2023 World Archery Para Championships three months ago, China finished on top with seven gold medals and the hosts will hope to continue the momentum in Hangzhou.

Chunyan, the triple world champion in Pilsen 2023, will have a chance to put up a great show in front of her home fans. Though the Chinese will have a hard job with Nemati whose sights will have set on gold – she is a double Paralympic gold medallist, and is arguably the most popular and successful female Paralympian to come from Iran.

Others who are expected to make a mark in recurve events are world champions Wu Yang and Zhao Lixue.

Meanwhile, there are a few new faces, who will be eager to continue their good run at Hangzhou 2022 after surprising everyone in compound events at Pilsen 2023.

Sheetal Devi, the Indian armless female archer who scripted history at the Pilsen 2023 Worlds winning the silver medal, is one among them who would be eager to make a mark in Hangzhou with names like Sarita and Rakesh Kumar also keen to repeat their Worlds gold medal show in the compound open mixed team event.

Singapore’s Nur Syahidah Alim will also be one to watch out as the former world champion will be striving to return to winning ways in major competitions. Among others, Iranians Alisina Manshaezadeh and Hadi Nori are expected to make a mark in compound men open doubles events.

Meanwhile, Chen Minyi and Zhang Tianxin, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic champions in mixed W1 events, should be aiming to top in the women’s doubles and men’s doubles W1 events as they did at the Pilsen 2023 Worlds.

Minyi will be joined by W1 women’s champion Zhang Lu, while Tianxin will be partnering Han Guifei for men’s W1 doubles.

The Asian Para Games open on October 22 and run until October 28.