Paris Paralympics: Harvinder, Pooja move to mixed team recurve open QFs

Paris, Sep 5 : Para-archers Harvinder Singh and Pooja Jatyan moved into the Mixed Team Recurve Open quarterfinals with a close 5-4 win over Australian duo of Taymon Kenton-Smith and Amanda Jennings in a shoot-off at the Paris Paralympics, here on Thursday.

Harvinder and Pooja will next take on Poland's Lukasz Ciszek and Milena Olszewska for a place in the semifinals.

The Indian duo started off well, taking the first two sets comfortably but a one from Pooja gave the Australian pair an opportunity to bounce back as they took the next two sets to level the scores at 4-4 after the end of the fourth set.

In the shoot-off, Harvinder started off with nine, followed by seven from Pooja. The Australians had no match to the Indians' shot as Kenton-Smith shot five while Amanda missed the target, giving India a win and a place in the quarterfinals.

On Wednesday night, Harvinder made history, becoming India's first-ever Olympic or Paralympic champion in archery. The 33-year-old showed a stellar performance en route to gold medal in the recurve men's competition at the Paris 2024.

Three years ago in the Tokyo Para Games, he reached the first milestone. His bronze was India's premiere medal at either the Olympics or Paralympics achieved in archery.

On the other hand, in the mixed 50m rifle prone SH1 shooting competition, India faced disappointment as Mona Agarwal and Sidhartha Babu failed to secure a spot in the final.

Mona, who won the bronze medal in the women's 10m air rifle SH-1 event, finished 30th with a score of 610.5 while Sidhartha finished 22nd with a score of 615.8 in the 60-shot qualification round.