Sarita and Rakesh Kumar beat Brazil’s Jane Gogel and Reinaldo Ferreira 152-146 in the compound mixed team open event to win India’s first-ever gold medal in the World Archery Para Championships in Pilsen, Czech Republic.
In the championship, Indian para-archers won three medals-one gold, a silver and a bronze, and six quota places for the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
This was the country’s best-ever result at the para-archery world championships. The previous-best tally was two silvers in Dubai last year.
Sarita also won bronze in the compound women’s team event with Jyoti. They beat the Iranian pair of Farzaneh Asgari and Maryam Yavarpoor Shahrbabaki 147-142 in the bronze medal match.
Armless archer Sheetal Devi, only 16, accounted for the country’s only individual medal, a silver in women’s compound.
Sheetal, who shoots with her foot, went on a dream run in the competition before being halted by Turkey’s Oznur Cure, the defending champion, by a 140-138 scoreline in the final.
Having started archery training only about a year ago, Sheetal is the first female armless archer to win a silver medal at the para world championships.
Sarita also made the bronze medal match in the individual women’s compound event but lost to Jane Gogel 142-139. It was Sheetal who defeated Sarita in the semi-finals.
Earlier in the ranking rounds, India set three world records and Sarita was part of all of them. Sarita set the new world record in the women’s individual compound with a score of 697.
Sarita and Sheetal’s combined world record tally of 1386 helped them top women’s compound team qualifications. Rakesh and Sarita paired up to top the compound mixed doubles ranking round with a new world record score of 1398.
Along with the medals, Sarita, Rakesh Kumar and Sheetal Devi also won quota places for the 2024 Paralympics in Paris for reaching the finals.
India won three more quota places for Paris 2024 courtesy men’s compound archer Shyam Sundar Swami, women’s recurve archer Pooja and recurve archer Harvinder Singh, who is also a bronze medalist from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.
A total of 13 Indian archers participated in the World Archery Para Championships in Pilsen.