World Archery Para Championship: Tokyo bronze medalist Harvinder Singh enters second round

Indian para-archer Harvinder Singh started his World Archery Para Championships on a positive note as he entered the second round of the recurve men's individual event in Dubai on Thursday. Harvinder Singh, who was seeded 11th after the ranking round, got a bye in the first round and will next face Spain's Jose Manuel Marin Rodriguez.

Harvinder took a while to showcase his usual form in the qualifying rounds, finding more 10+Xs and Xs in only his second set of six as he totaled 609.

Compatriot Rajesh, qualifying 25th, also made it to the second round after defeating Thailand’s Sukkun Phet 6-2 in the first round.

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Harvinder Singh overcomes a slow start

Harvinder Singh won India's first Olympic medal in archery when he earned bronze at the Tokyo Paralympics. However, this time around, his slow and sluggish start could have dented his aspirations of finishing in the top 10. Harvinder admitted to that, saying:

“It wasn’t a very good start as I expected. I was expecting to be in the top 10 in the ranking round. I took time to get into the groove, both in my mind and body. But I hope I can overcome that and get a good result here,” he said.

Read: World Archery Para Championship: Jyoti Baliyan - Swami make history, enter finals

At the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, the archer was ranked 21st before he decimated all his opponents on his way to a bronze medal.

Harvinder will also play the recurve mixed team and recurve men’s doubles, where India have qualified fifth and seventh, respectively.

“I feel confident of a medal in the mixed team event. Pooja and I have been teaming up for the last couple of years and we have a good balanced team,” Harvinder added.

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Women recurve archers off to a good start

Meanwhile, the recurve women’s archers also had a good day, with Pooja (598) and Pooja Khanna (544) qualifying in fourth and 13th place, respectively. Pooja will also play the recurve women’s doubles along with Khanna as the pair qualified second.

In the wheelchair W1 men's category, Adil Mohamed Nazir Ansari qualified for eighth place with a score of 639.

All team elimination rounds will be played on Friday, with India’s compound archers Shyam Sundar Swami and Jyoti Baliyan to be in action in the Compound Mixed Team finals.