"My daughter has come so far....": Sheetal Devi's father after her Paralympics 2024 bronze

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.

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. Sheetal is one of the most inspirational stories to have come out of the Indian sport in recent times. Born with no arms, her ability to shoot on-point arrows using her legs has won her a lot of awe and acclaim. She is also a three-time Para Asian Games medallist, having secured two golds (individual and mixed compound event) and a silver (doubles compound event).

The Indian contingent has added 21 medals to its growing tally (three gold, eight silver and ten bronze) and will have an opportunity to further extend its record medal haul in a single edition of the Paralympics. In the Tokyo edition (August 24 - September 5, 2021), India recorded its best-ever medal haul with a tally of 19, including five gold, eight silver and six bronze medals.

Para-athlete Sachin Khilari on Wednesday clinched the silver medal in the men's shot put F46 final at the ongoing Paris Paralympics. Sachin secured the second spot with a 16.32-metre throw, which is also the area best (AB). However, the Indian athlete was unlucky to miss the top spot after getting short of 0.6m. On Monday and Tuesday, the Indian contingent won 13 medals for the country, jumping the medal tally to a record 20 consisting of three gold, seven silver, and 10 bronze medals. (ANI)

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