Paris 2024 Paralympics Para-Archery: Sarita Kumari crashes out in QF, Sheetal Devi loses in Round of 16
India’s Paris 2024 Paralympics para-archery journey suffered a major setback as female para-archers Sarita Kumari and Sheetal Devi suffered a Day 3 exit on Saturday, August 31.
Veteran para-archer Sarita lost to Turkey’s Oznur Cure Girdi in the quarter-final of the women’s individual compound open event. Despite a strong fight from Sarita, she eventually had to settle as the second-best competitor, losing the bout 140-145.
Defeating 26-year-old Cure Girdi was always going to be a herculean task for Sarita. The Turkish para-archer had created a new world record in the qualification round, scoring 704 from a maximum of 720 points .
Cure Girdi started the match on the front foot, leading the scoreline from the very beginning and never letting go. Despite Sarita bettering her opponent’s score in the third round, she again fell behind and could not recover. She eventually lost the match by 26-28, 27-30, 29-28, 30-30, 28-29.
The defeat was a heartbreaking one for Sarita, who had defeated Italy’s Eleonora Sarti in the pre-quarterfinal clash of the Paris 2024 Paralympics para-archery event by a scoreline of 141-135 earlier on Saturday.
Sheetal Devi suffers Paris 2024 Paralympics Para-Archery Round-of-16 loss by one point
India’s Paris 2024 Paralympics para-archery misery continued, as 17-year-old para-archer Sheetal Devi, the famed ‘armless archer’ of India, lost to Mariana Zuniga of Chile by a solitary point. The Asian Para Games gold medalist lost the game 137-138.
Despite making a strong start to the match, Sheetal had poor scores in the second and third rounds. She put a fight in round 3 but the damage was done by that time, and another disappointing showing in the final round did not help. She finally finished the match 29-28, 26-27, 27-27, 29-29, 26-27.
The result was a far cry from Sheetal Devi’s performance in the Paris 2024 Paralympics para-archery qualifiers, where the prodigy had scored 703 and missed the world record by one point.
With the latest defeats, both Sarita and Sheetal reached the end of their Paris 2024 Parlaympics para-archery journey.