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India’s Tokyo Paralympic Games bronze medalist in archery, Harvinder Singh, is hoping to kick off the new season with a good performance at next month’s World Archery Para Championships in Dubai.
“A good beginning will add to my confidence," Singh told Sportskeeda after his Thursday practice session from Sonepat. This year is important for me as I am looking to defend my title at the Hangzhou Para Asian Games in September."
The 30-year-old has cleared the first hurdle by qualifying for the World Archery Para Championship, scheduled to be held from February 19-27.
The tournament was supposed to take place last year, but the pandemic forced the postponement. Over 200 competitors are expected to compete in individual, mixed and team events.
The Archery Association of India (AAI) shortlisted 20 archers for the first phase of the camp. The list was pruned down to eight after selection trials. Four archers each in recurve and compound will represent India.
Singh is among the four-member national recurve para team selected for the Dubai competition. He has been attending the national camp since December last year at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) training center in Sonepat, Haryana.
With the spike in cases of Omicron in India, Singh’s biggest concern is staying healthy. The National Archery Para Championship scheduled to be held in the third week of January was postponed due to the pandemic.
“It’s big challenge for me as well as for the coaching staff to keep all the archers in good health," he said. "I hope the situation will improve in coming days so that we don’t have to think too much of the contagious virus.
“The main task in the national camp is to stay on track for a good performance at the next month’s international competition as my goal is to start the new season with podium finish,” he added.
In the build-up to the Tokyo Paralympic Games, Singh contracted COVID-19 but was able to recover on time and stay on course to earn a podium finish.
Singh displayed great courage and determination to clinch individual bronze in the recurve event at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games last year after a shoot-off with Korean archer Kim Min Su.
