Tokyo Paralympics: Harvinder bags archery bronze in individual recurve to grab India’s 13th medal

Mangalore Today News Network

Tokyo, Sep 04, 2021: Harvinder Singh made history on Friday as he claimed India’s first-ever medal in para archery by bagging the bronze at the Tokyo Paralympics.

 

Harvinder lost the men’s semi-final individual recurve open to move into the bronze medal match where he beat South Korea’s Kim Min Su in the shoot-off to claim India’s 13th medal at the showpiece event.

Harvinder is the third medal winner for India on Friday after Praveen Kumar and Avani Lekhara. India is currently placed 37th on the medals tally with 2 gold, 6 silver and 5 bronze.

World No.23 Singh was the first athlete from India to win a gold medal at a major para competition in the 2018 Asian Games. An economics scholar from the Punjabi University, Patiala, Singh collected three shoot-off wins on the day starting with his triumphs in the opening rounds.

In the bronze playoff, the 31-year-old was leading 5-3 before the Kroean clinched the fifth set shooting a perfect 10 to force a shoot-off where the Indian responded in style shooting a perfect 10 against Kim’s 8 for a 6-5 (26-24, 27-29, 28-25, 25-25, 26-27) (10-8) win.

Harvinder started his campaign in the individual event by defeating Italy’s Stefano Travisani before winning against Russian Paralympic Committee’s Bato Tsydendorzhiev and Maik Szarszewksi. He lost to American Kevin Mather in the semis.

India’s Pramod Bhagat and his partner Palak Kohli qualified for the mixed doubles semifinals, while three singles players, including Noida District Magistrate Suhas Yathiraj, also made the last-four stage to continue a rampaging run at the Paralympics badminton competition here on Friday.

Bhagat, who had qualified for the men’s singles SL3 event on Thursday, and Kohli beat Thailand’s Siripong teamarrom and Nipada Saensupa 21-15 21-19 in a 29-minute clash to finish second in group B.

The Indian duo will clash with Indonesian pair of Hary Susanto and Leani Ratri in the semifinals on Saturday. In men’s singles, Suhas, Tarun Dhillon and Manoj Sarkar also made it to the semifinals on a fruitful day for India.

Courtesy:India Today