Pooja is the first archer from India to qualify for the Paralympics
Archery
Event: Women's Individual Recurve- Ranking Round
Athlete: Pooja
Time: 5:30pm IST
Shooting
Event: Mixed 10m Air Rifle SH1 Qualifications
Athlete: Naresh Kumar Sharma
Time: 6pm IST
Event: Mixed 10m Air Rifle SH1 Finals
Time: 8:15pm
Date
Time
Sport
Event
Athlete
Sept 10
17:30
Archery
Women's Individual Recurve- Ranking Round
Pooja
Sept 10
18:00
Shooting
Mixed 10m Air Rifle SH1 Qualifications
Naresh Kumar Sharma
Sept 10
20:15
Shooting
Mixed 10m Air Rifle SH1 Finals
After failing to qualify for the finals, India’s only para-swimmer Suyash Narayan Jadhav made the country proud by finishing fifth in his heat. Now it is the turn of India’s first archer at the Paralympics, Pooja to give the performance of her life and finish well.
The daughter of a sweeper, Pooja’s journey has certainly been a long and perilous one. A few weeks back she became the victim to another setback after the IPC announced that they would be unable to accommodate her coach to accompany her to Rio. Without her coach, Sanjay Suhag, Pooja is reportedly unable to string her own bow and mount her equipment prior to shooting the target. We hope this does not affect her performance tomorrow.
Hailing from Rohtak in Haryana, she was diagnosed with Poliomyelitis at a young age. Despite this, she retained an interest in archery although it was obviously difficult to find suitable infrastructure to give shape to her dreams. Coming from a humble economic background, Pooja was unable to afford any sort of world class training in Rohtak.
Her coach helped her out initially with basic equipment and she made the most of this opportunity. She won her first major medal at the National Para Archery Tournament in Rohtak and followed it up with a 5th place finish at the World ranking Tournament held in the Czech Republic. The latter performance earned her a qualification into the ongoing Paralympics.
Naresh Kumar Sharma is, of course, the veteran of the contingent with this edition of the Games being his fifth appearance at the Paralympics. The 42-year old shooter is a former Arjuna Awardee. In his previous event, he failed to make a mark after he finished 21st by registering a score of 493.1. We definitely hope his performance picks up in his second event He is one of the two Indians playing on this day.
