iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist Harvinder Singh made history for India by winning the gold medal in the Men’s Individual Recurve Open, becoming the first Indian archer to win a gold medal in the Paralympic Games. With a consistent and rock-solid performance, Harvinder bagged the gold medal by blanking Lukasz Ciszek of Poland 6-0 in the final on Wednesday, September 4.
The medal tally also rose to 24 as club thrower Dharambir finished at the top with a 34.92m throw.
With this achievement, Harvinder became the first and only Indian archer to win a gold medal in the Paralympics and Olympics. He is also the first and only archer to secure medals in consecutive editions of the Paralympics.
In the Gold Medal Match on Wednesday, Harvinder came up with a dominant display.
A 10 in the first set besides two 9s secured Harvinder Singh the first set as the Pole shot a seven in between nine and eight for a 28-24 win. Up 2-0, Harvinder started the second set with two successive nines and then topped it with a 10 for 28 while Ciszek had three 9s for another narrow defeat. Harvinder, from a farmer’s family from Kaithal in Haryana, sealed the gold medal with two 10s followed by a nine (29) while Ciszek started with a seven and then scored two 9s for a 29-25 win.
Earlier, Harvinder had assured himself a second successive medal in the Paralympic Games as he stormed into the final with a come-from-behind win over Iran’s Arab Ameri Mohammad Reza in the semifinal here on Wednesday.
The 33-year-old Harvinder came up with a brilliant performance, coming back after losing the first set to stun the Iranian 7-3, sealing a place in the maiden final at the Paralympic Games.
In the semifinal, Harvinder lost the first set 26-25 because of a seven on his second arrow. The second set ended in a tie at 27-27. he then levelled scores at 3-3 by winning the third set 27-25 and surged ahead to a 5-3 set points lead by winning the fourth set 26-24.
Harvinder Singh then sealed a place in the final with another steady performance, shooting two 9s and an eight for a 26-25 win after the Iranian started with a 10 but faltered for an eight and seven on his next two arrows.
Earlier, Harvinder, who had bagged a bronze medal in the Tokyo Paralympic Games after losing in the semifinals, got the better of Colombia’s Julio Ramirez Hector 6-2 in a quarterfinal clash.
The Indian had started the day with a 7-3 win over Tseng Lung-Hui of Chinese Taipei and continued to march ahead with a fine 6-2 win over Indonesia’s Setiawan Setiawan in the prequarters.
Meanwhile, the series of double podium finishes continued for India after para-athletes Dharambir and Pranav Soorma bagged gold and silver medals, respectively, in the men’s club throw F51 final.
Following another podium finish, India’s medal total at the Paris Paralympics skyrocketed to 24, including five gold, nine silver and 10 bronze. The Indian contingent is now one medal away from hitting the 25-medal target set by the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) President Devendra Jhajharia.
Dharambir’s record-breaking throw levelled India’s tally of five gold medals that came in the Tokyo edition three years ago.
Dharambir broke the Asian Record and set 34.92m as the new benchmark to take away the gold. His compatriot Pranav was close to Dharambir, but ended up being too far. He settled for the silver medal with a throw of 34.59m.
Notably, this result was a reverse of the podium at last year’s Para Asian Games. During that final, it was Pranav who struck gold and Dharambir settled for silver.
Meanwhile, the third Indian in the fray, Amit Kumar Saroha, was well short of a podium finish with his best attempt of 23.96m.
After failing to register a single valid throw in his first four attempts, Dharambir, who hails from Sonipat, Haryana, broke the Asian record in his fifth attempt with a humongous throw of 34.92m. He followed it up with another massive attempt of 31.59m to cap off his impressive display.
Pranav produced the silver-winning throw of 34.59m in his first attempt and constantly struck the 33m mark in his remaining five attempts.
Serbia’s Zeljko Dimitrijevic, who was the biggest threat to the Indian pair, produced his bronze medal throw of 34.18m in his second attempt. The Serbian was one of the favourites to take the top spot, with two gold and one silver medal at the last three Paralympics.
India enjoyed double podium finishes on Tuesday too after Ajeet Singh and Sundar Singh Gurjar claimed silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the men’s javelin throw F46 event and moments later, duo of Mariyappan Thangavelu and Sharad Kumar won the bronze and silver medals in the men’s high jump T6 final.
