World Para Archery C’ship: Sheetal Devi seals women’s individual compound gold

GWANGJU(South Korea):The 18-year-old Indian armless archery wonder, Sheetal Devi, made history by bagging the gold medal in the women’s individual compound archery category at the ongoing World Para Archery Championship on Saturday.

Sheetal defeated Turkiye’s world number one Oznur Cure Girdi by 146-143 in the gold medal clash, as per ESPN.

This is her third medal at the Championships, having earlier won the mixed team bronze with Toman Kumar and beating Great Britain’s pair of Jodie Grinham and Nathan MacQueen 152-149.

In the compound women’s open team event, Sheetal and Sarita secured the silver medal after losing to Turkey in the gold medal clash.

Coming to her individual final, it was a tense match, Sheetal’s consistency and composure turned out to be the different. The first end was tied 29-all, but Sheetal fired three tens in the second end, to take an early lead of 30-27.

The third end was also tied at 29-all and Sheetal experienced a lapse towards the end, scoring 28 points and Girdi shot 29, but Sheetal still had the overall lead by 116-114.

With three perfect arrow hits to score 30, Sheetal secured her maiden gold medal.

In the semifinal, this star archer from Jammu and Kashmir, who also won the Paralympics bronze medal last year in the mixed team category, produced a flawless display to secure a 145-140 win over Great Britain’s Jodie Grinham to reach the final.

The title clash marked Sheetal’s redemption as back in 2023 World Championships, it was Girdi who had edged out Sheetal for a gold by 140-138, but this time, Sheetal took home the top prize. (ANI)