Indian archer Harvinder Singh wins the bronze medal at the Tokyo Paralympics in the men's individual recurve event on Friday.
Up against South Korea's Su Min Kim, Singh started with a 10 in Set 1, followed by a 7 and 9, to win it 26-24.
In the second set 2, he shot 8, 10 and 9, but lost to Kim's 29 against 27. In the next set, a 10, 10 and 8 was good enough to claim a lead over Kim by 28-25.
In Set 4, Harvinder's 9, 9 and 7 fell short by 1 point and points were shared by both at 25-25.
Into the final game, Harvinder raked up 26 points but Kim's star arrow gave him a lead by 27-26, which led the match into a shoot-off.
In the shoot off, Kim hit 8, but Harvinder won the bronze by 10.
This is India's first ever medal in archery at Paralympics.
Earlier, Harvinder Harvinder lost to USA's Kevin Mather in the semifinals.
Harvinder, 30, hails from Ajitnagar of Haryana's Kaithal district. He belongs to a family of farmers living in Western Haryana. His father, Paramjeet Singh is a farmer. At the age of one-and-a-half years, Harvinder suffered from dengue after which he was administered a wrong injection, which had an adverse effect and his legs stopped functioning properly.
Harvinder took interest in archery in 2012 while watching archery matches in London Olympics on T.V. and joined the archery range the very next day. Harvinder has been regularly practising archery ever since the day he joined the archery range. His coach Jiwanhot Singh was awestruck by his brilliance in the sport. Harvinder is used to practising after his study classes.
Before making a mark on the international stage, Harvinder has fared well and won medals in archery at the national level. His achievements at the national level archery competitions gave hope to his coach that he could be the next star in Indian archery. In 2017, Harvinder made his debut in Para Archery World Championship, Beijing and finished 7th. In 2018 he won a Gold medal at the Jakarta Asian Para Games, 2018.
During the lockdown, Harvinder's father turned his farm into an archery range so that he can continue his practice. As well as being a sportsperson, Harvinder Singh focuses on studies as well. He is pursuing Ph.D (Economics) in the Department of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala.
