Indiaโs Harvinder Singh and Pooja Jatyan narrowly missed out on the bronze medal, falling to Slovenia in a shoot-off with a score of 4 – 5 in the Mixed Team Recurve category at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris.
Harvinder and Jatyan were defeated in the semifinals by Italy with a score of 2-6, setting up a bronze medal match against Slovenia, which Turkey had defeated in their semifinals.
The Indian duo, who had previously triumphed over Australia in the Round of 16 via a shoot-off, struggled to replicate that success in their bronze medal match.
Despite a promising start, winning the first set 33-30 with consistent scores of 9 and 8, Singh and Jatyan couldn’t maintain their momentum.
This was in contrast to their quarterfinal match against Poland, where they had dominated right from the get go, winning 6-0.
Sloveniaโs Dejan and Ziva responded strongly, clinching the second set 34-29 as the Indian pair faltered with scores of 6 and 5.
The Indian pair made a remarkable comeback in the third set, with Harvinder and Jatyan delivering impressive shots of 10 and 9.
The Slovenian team, however, kept the competition tight, with Dejan scoring the first 10 of the match. Despite his strong start, Dejan’s second shot was only a 7.
The Indians capitalized on this opportunity, closing the gap and securing the third set 38 – 33 despite their narrow miss of two points from a perfect score.
๐๐ข๐ฑ๐๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐ก๐๐ซ๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐ฆ ๐ค4๏ธโฃ๐ญ๐ก ๐๐ข๐ง๐ข๐ฌ๐ก ๐
The trend of Indian mixed Archery team finishing 4th continues as Harvinder and Pooja miss out on a ๐ฅ. Now ๐ฎ๐ณ’s recurve mixed teams at both the Olympics and Paralympics have suffered the fate ๐ซ ๐ฏ#Paris2024โฆ pic.twitter.com/kguHPRJeZI
โ The Bridge (@the_bridge_in) September 5, 2024
In the final set, Jatyan struggled with a disappointing 7 and 5, which allowed the Slovenian team to level the score with 9 and 8.
This resulted in the Slovenian team winning the set 34-29 and leading the match to a decisive shoot-off.
Singhโs initial shot of 8 was bested by Dejanโs 9, while Jatyanโs 9 was surpassed by Zivaโs perfect 10 in the shoot-off securing Slovenia the bronze medal.
With this defeat, India’s para-archery campaign at the Paris Paralympics concludes with one gold and one bronze medal.
Harvinder Singh secured gold in the Men’s Singles Recurve Open, while the Mixed Compound Team, consisting of Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar, won bronze.