Para archers with AAI chief Arjun Munda (in red coat).
Indian compound archers did very well at the 7th Fazza World Ranking Tournament - Dubai 2021 at the Dubai Club for People of Determination grounds here from Tuesday. Rakesh Kumar won the Compound Individual Gold whereas the Mixed team of Harvinder Singh and Pooja won the Gold in Recurve Mixed team.
Rakesh defeated 9th ranked archer of France in 1/8th matches ( 142/140), in the quarter-final defeated the No 1 ranked archer Atamanenk Serhiy from Ukraine( 142 vs 137). In the semi final Rakesh defeated Agyan of Turkey , ranked no 5 by 143 vs 138. In the final he defeated Shyam Sunder of India ranked 2 with a score of 143 vs 135.
In the Mixed Team Recurve event India ( Harvinder & Pooja) defeated in the semi Final ranked 2 Ukraine team in a tie breaker. In the finals they defeated Ranked 1 Turkey team in a tie breaker.
In the process Shyam Sunder defeated former World No. 1 in Men’s Compound Open Marcel Pavlik from Slovakia 145 vs 143 whereas Jyoti defeated Dzhioeva Anastasia of Russia.
As many as 70 archers from 11 nations are competing in this year’s Championships which will also mark the return of Para Archery action after a year. Dubai had hosted the last Para Archery Championships – the 6th Fazza Para Archery World Ranking Tournament in February 2020 before the Coronavirus Pandemic struck the world suspending or cancelling all sporting events.
This year’s Championships, hosted under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mansoor bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council, has the participation from Algeria, France, India, Iran, Kazakhstan Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine and the hosts United Arab Emirates.
Among the top names who are in week are Iranian London 2012 Paralympic medallist Zahra Nemati, former World No. 1 in Men’s Compound Open Marcel Pavlik from Slovakia besides several Tokyo 2020 qualifiers and former champions.
While Turkey who claimed seven medals last year are here with maximum 14 players, the hosts United Arab Emirates fielded 7 players.
India won the highest number of medals in the Para International Tournament so far.
Gold Medal- Recurve Mixed Team( Harvinder & Pooja), Compound Indv( Rakesh Kumar)
Silver Medal – Compound Mixed Team( Shyam Sunder & Jyoti Baliyan), Compound Indv M( Shyam Sunder) & Women( Jyoti Baliyan)
Mr Arjun Munda ji, President, AAI expressed happiness on their performance and said that he is hopeful of them winning medals at the Paralympics. He also said that there is chances of Jyoti Baliyan and Pooja qualifying at the Czech World Ranking Tournament.
Pramod Chandurkar Secretary General said that the Nationals camps are ongoing till the Paralympics and the archer will participate in the Czech republic and also we shall be sending the team 14 days in advance to Tokyo for acclimatisation so that chances of our archers are very bright.
Also present on the occasion were Sanjeeva Singh, High Performance Director(Archery) who mentioned that we are trying to provide training on scientific lines to enhance the team’s performance. Olympian Limba Ram also blessed the archers and motivated them to perform better. Team Coaches Anil Joshi and Deepak Malik were also felicitated along with the archers
