India's top archer Harvinder Singh created history with India's first gold medal in archery at the Paris Paralympics 2024 on Wednesday, September 4. Harvinder defeated Poland's Lukasz Ciszek in the men's individual recurve final by 6-0 to bring India its first gold in archery at the Olympics or Paralympics.
Earlier on Wednesday, the 2020 Tokyo Para Games bronze medalist displayed a sensational comeback from 1-3 down to win the semi-final clash by 7-3 against Iran's Mohammad Reza Arab Ameri. He became the first Indian archer, male or female, to reach the final of the Olympics or Paralympics.
The 33-year-old archer from Haryana also defeated Hector Julio Ramirez of Colombia in the quarter-finals, Setiawan Setiawan of Indonesia in the round of 16 and Tseng Lung-Hui of Chinese Taipei in the round of 32.
Harvinder claimed a bronze in the men's recurve event at Tokyo 2020 to become the first Indian Paralympic to win a medal in archery. He converted that bronze into gold with utter dominance against Lukasz Ciszek in the final with four 10s and five 9s shots in three sets.
The 44-year-old Ciszek was playing the first final of his career and never threatened to challenge Harvinder throughout three sets. He registered a 7 and 8 in his first set attempts and failed to register a single 10 in his overall nine attempts.
Harvinder claimed India's fourth gold and 22nd overall medal at the Paris Paralympics. India jumped to 15th position in the medal table as it continued to produce their best-ever performance at the Paralympics with record medals and a potential T20 finish.
Two days ago, Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar produced India's only second archery medal, a bronze in the mixed compound event. India's other three gold medals at the Paris Paralympics came in athletics (javelin), shooting and badminton.
