World Para Archery Championships: Tokyo medallist Harvinder Singh receives first round bye

Tokyo Paralympics bronze medallist Harvinder Singh received an opening-round bye in the men's individual open recurve event at the Dubai World Archery Para Championships here.

Harvinder, who was seeded 11th after the ranking round, will next face Spain's Jose Manuel Marin Rodriguez, ranked 22nd. In qualifying, Harvinder had taken his time to find his usual form, registering more 10+Xs and Xs only in his second set of six as he totalled 609. Compatriot Rajesh, qualifying 25th, too made it to round 2 by defeating Thailand's Sukkun Phet 6-2 in first round.

"It wasn't a very good start as I expected. I was expecting to be in the top 10 in the ranking round. I took time to get into the groove, both in my mind and body. But I hope I can overcome that and get a good result here," Harvinder said.

At the Tokyo Paralympics, Harvinder was ranked 21st before he climbed the ladder to take the bronze medal. Harvinder will also play the recurve mixed team and men's doubles events, where India has qualified fifth and seventh, respectively.

Meanwhile, the recurve women's archers also had a good day with Pooja (598) and Pooja Khanna (544) qualifying in the fourth and 13th places respectively. Pooja will also play the recurve women's doubles along with Khanna, where the pair has qualified second.

In the wheelchair W1 men category, Adil Mohamed Nazir Ansari qualified in eighth place with 639 score. All the team elimination rounds will be played on Friday, with India's compound archers Shyam Sundar Swami and Jyoti Baliyan to be in action in the compound mixed team finals.