Kishtwar ,sep 4
The family of Paralympics 2024 medallist para-archer Sheetal Devi on Wednesday expressed happiness at her fine performances in the competition and expressed hope that she will continue delivering consistent performances at the upcoming competitions.The Indian archery pair of Rakesh Kumar and Sheetal Devi clinched the bronze medal in the Mixed Team Compound event with a win over Eleonora Sarti and Matteo Bonnacina of Italy at the ongoing Paris Paralympics. They defeated the Italian pair with a scoreline of 156-155 in the bronze medal match of the ongoing marquee event on Monday. With this win, they bagged a bronze medal for their country.However, before this, Sheetal did not enjoy a fine start to her campaign as she crashed out of the women’s individual compound open archery event on Saturday. Sheetal displayed a stunning performance in the qualification of women’s individual compound archery by breaking the previous World Record of 698 by shooting 703 points out of a possible 720 for a second-place finish, losing to Chile’s Zuniga Mariana by 137-138 in the next round. Such a narrow margin prevented her from going into the knockout stages.Speaking to ANI, the para-archer’s father, Mann Singh, said, “It is a matter of joy. The whole family is happy at our daughter’s performance. It is a matter of happiness for the whole country that my daughter has come so far.” Her brother Ajay Kumar also expressed hope that his sister will continue her consistent performances in upcoming events. “This is a matter of joy for the family, our village, and the country that she won the medal… We are very happy. We hope that she keeps winning like this in future games and tournaments. First, we had lost hope (after loss in women’s compound archery), but then, by the grace of God, she won a medal,” said Ajay.
