Asian Para Games: Teenaged armless archer Sheetal Devi becomes first Indian woman to win two gold in single edition

Teenaged armless archer Sheetal Devi became the first Indian woman to win two gold medals in a single edition of the Asian Para Games as the countrys record haul swelled to 99 on the penultimate day of competitions on FridayIndia won 17 medals including seven gold with the shuttlers contributing the most number of medals eight with four gold on FridayWith one day left in the Hangzhou Asian Para Games India were placed sixth in the standings with 25 gold 29 silver and 45 bronze below China 196 gold 159 silver 138 bronze Japan 39 44 56 Iran 39 39 37 Korea 28 30 37 and Indonesia 26 21 32India is at fourth place in terms of total number of medalsNever Give Up perfectly suits Sheetal Devi Sheetal Devi is the first female archer without arms to win 3 medals for India at the 2022 Asian Para Games I salute her passion and determination despite her physical disability pictwittercom0lGLiOvQO6mdash Rani Rampal imranirampal October 27 2023On Thursday India had gone past the earlier highest Asian Para Games tally of 72 medals 15 gold 24 silver 33 bronze achieved in the 2018 editionThe country is now certain to win 100 medals in the Hangzhou Asian Para Games which will be a remarkable milestoneThe para athletes are set to emulate their ablebodied counterparts who had won a record haul of 107 medals in the Hangzhou Asian Games held from September 23 to October 8Also Read Indians smash a sixSheetal clinched the womens individual compound gold on Friday to add to the yellow metal she won in the compound mixed team event on ThursdayIn fact it is a hattrick of medals for the 16yearold from Jammu and Kashmir who holds her bow with her foot She had also won a silver in the womens doubles compound eventSheetal was born with phocomelia syndrome a rare congenital disorder which kept limbs underdevelopedDiscovered at a military camp in a remote part of Kishtwar and adopted by the Indian Army in her childhood Sheetal who became the first armless woman to win a Para World Archery Championships medal in July defeated Singapores Alim Nur Syahidah 144142 in the gold medal matchAnkur Dhama had become the first Indian to win two gold medals in a single edition earlier this weekAnother Indian archer Rakesh Kumar defeated Irans Alisin Manshaezadeh in 144101449 in a shootoff to win the silver medal in mens compound eventReigning Paralympic champion shuttler Pramod Bhagat secured a gold medal in the single SL3 category as he outplayed compatriot Nitesh Kumar 2220 2119 in the finalFirstly a huge congratulations to Nitesh Kumar I think he played the game of his life but unfortunately ended up with a silver He is a brilliant player and pushes me till the edge which he did today said BhagatSomehow even when I was trailing I had a belief that I would make a comeback and could win the thought of losing never occurred to me I focused on 1 point at a time and made it possible he addedTokyo Paralympics silver medallist IAS officer Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj bettered his bronze from the last edition by winning gold in the SL4 finalThulasimathi Murugesan warded off the challenge posed by local shuttler Yang Qiuxia by eking out a 2119 2119 win to clinch the coveted yellow metal in the womens SU5 finalIn the mens doubles SL3SLF4 Nitesh and Tarun won the gold while Thulasmathi combined with Manasi Joshi to win silver in womens doubles SL3SU5 losing to Khalimatus Sadiyah and Leani Ratri Oktila of Indonesia 1621 2113 1421 in the finalReigning Paralympic champion Krishna Nagar settled for a silver as he went down fighting 10 21 218 1121 against Hong Kongs Chu Man Kai in the mens SH6 finalThe Indian mens SU5 mens doubles pair of Chirag Baretha and Raj Kumar also added a silver after losing to Hafizh Briliansyah and Dheva Anrimusthi of Indonesia 1121 2119 1121 in the finalBadminton competitions ended on Friday and the shuttlers contributed 21 medals 4 gold 4 silver 13 bronze to Indias tally the second highest after athletics which has contributed 51 so farIn athletics which contributed six medals on Friday Raman Sharma and Dharamraj Solairaj picked up a gold medal each in mens 1500m T38 and long jump T64 eventsRaman reigned supreme in his event with a new Asian and Games record time of 42080s while Dharamraj also broke the same two records by clearing a distance of 680mJavelin throwers Pradeep Kumar 2594m and Laxit 2120m clinched the silver and bronze medals in the F54 event with personal best effortsDiscus thrower Lakshmi too found a place on the podium as she bagged the bronze medal with a personal best effort of 2255m in the womens F3738 Manu also won a bronze medal in the mens shot put F37 event with a personal best effort of 1409mSuyash Narayan Jadhav won Indias first medal in swimming in Hangzhou as he picked up a bronze in mens 50m butterfly S7 clocking 3222 secondsWith agency inputs