Beijing, July 6: World number 1 and reigning Paralympics champion Harvinder Singh bagged two gold medals to complete a hat-trick of podium finishes, powering India to the second place in medal standings behind hosts China at the Beijing 2025 Asian Para Archery Championships here on Sunday.
India ended the competition with a tally of three gold, three silver and three bronze medals. China topped the standings with 10 gold, four silver and three bronze.
Singh, who shot a personal best and set a new competition record of 663 points to top the recurve men’s qualifying round, first won gold in the recurve open mixed team event alongside Bhawna.
On the final day, he added another gold by clinching the recurve men’s open title, wrapping up a brilliant campaign with three medals.
Harvinder and Bhawna defeated China’s Zihan Gao and Jun Gan in the recurve open mixed team final, winning 5-4 (14-8) after Gao missed in the shoot-off.
In the recurve men’s open final, Harvinder outclassed Thailand’s Hanreuchai Netsiri 7-1 to secure India’s third gold of the meet.
India’s another gold came in the compound women’s team event, where Sheetal Devi and Jyoti edged out China’s Lu Zhang and Jing Zhao 148-143.
The Chinese pair faltered with a miss from Lu Zhang in the final end.
Earlier, Harvinder and Vivek Chikara had settled for silver in the recurve men’s open doubles after losing 4-5 (17-18) in a shoot-off to China’s Jun Gan and Lixue Zhao.
Rakesh Kumar and Shyam Sunder Swami clinched silver in the compound men’s open doubles, narrowly going down 155-156 to China’s Ai Xinliang and Yicheng Zhang.
The Indian pair were leading by a point before the Chinese archers shot all perfect 10s in the final end to snatch victory.
India’s third silver came in the compound open mixed team event, where Rakesh Kumar and Jyoti lost 150-153 to China’s Jing Zhao and Ai Xinliang.
Pooja and Bhawna claimed bronze in the recurve women’s open doubles, defeating Indonesia 6-2.
In the men’s W1 doubles category, Naveen Dalal and Nurudin secured bronze with a thrilling shoot-off win over Kazakhstan. With both teams tied at 131-all, the Indian pair prevailed 18-15 in the tiebreaker.
Jyoti, who was seeded third, rounded off her campaign with a bronze in the compound women’s open category, beating Indonesia’s Teodora Audi Ayudia Ferelly 144-133. (PTI)
