Sarita bags bronze in the women's compound event at the Asian Para Archery Championships in Bangkok

Sarita emerged triumphant at the prestigious Asian Para Archery Championships, securing the bronze medal in the women's compound event in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday.

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Sarita's outstanding performance led her to a 139-135 win over Home-compatriot Jyoti in the Asian Para Archery Championships bronze medal match. Meanwhile, Sheetal Devi has qualified for the final in the women's compound individual event with a 143-138 win over Sarita in the semifinal. The final will be a repeat of the Asian Para Games gold medal match as Singapore's Nur Syahidah Alim also won her semifinal (140-138) against Indian player Jyoti.

A total of 10 Paralympic quota places are up for grabs at the continental event. Asian Para Games 2023 medallists Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar to name a few will be spearheading the Indian contingent. The former has already secured a quota in the women's compound after winning silver at the World Para Archery Championships in July.

The Asian Para Archery Championships will be followed by a qualifying tournament for the 2024 Paralympics starting on November 23. India has already secured six quota places (4 in compound, 2 in recurve) from the world championships earlier this year.

In the men's compound event, Rakesh Kumar was the only Indian to qualify for the semifinals where he won 143-142 against Japanese Oe Yuya. He will also play against Ken Swagumilang of Indonesia in the Asian Para Archery Championships final. Another compound archer Suraj Singh lost out in the quarterfinal (140-141) to Chinese Taipei player Wu Chung-Hung.

Indian recurve archers missed out on a medal in both the individual events - men's recurve and women's recurve. Tokyo Paralympic bronze medalist Harvinder Singh lost 5-6 in a very close match which decided in a shoot-off against Tomohiro Ueyama of Japan in the round of 16.

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Vivek Chikara lost 2-6 in the quarterfinal against second-seeded Chinese player Jun Gan. Earlier, he won 6-4 against another Indian player Sahil in the round of 16. Harvinder Singh has already won a Paralympics quota for Paris 2024 but Sahil and Vivek will look for a Paris quota place via the qualification event on Thursday at the same venue. In women's recurve, second-seeded Pooja lost 0-6 in her quarterfinal match against Mongolian player Selengee Demberel.