Having successfully changed the colour of his medal from bronze at Tokyo Paralympics to gold at Paris, India’s star para archer Harvinder Singh’s next target is to continue his successful run and complete his PhD. The first Indian para archer to have won a Paralympics medal at Tokyo, Harvinder rewrote history when he bagged the country’s maiden gold in the men’s recurve event at Paris on Thursday. “The preparations were going well in India at SAI Sonipat where I had both my coaches and that helped a lot. We came to France 15 days before (the event) and I was shooting well,” he told the media on Friday while discussing his preparations for the Paralympics.

“I was working on a few technical aspects. I wanted to go to Korea about 3-4 months ago but the coach was called here at SAI Sonipat,” said Harvinder, who has a disability in his legs following a medical mishap when he was one-and-a-half years old.

A local doctor administered him an injection which left him unable to move his legs properly after he had contracted dengue.

The first Indian to win a Paralympics medal in archery at Tokyo, Harvinder said he felt what the pressure of expectations means while he was preparing for Paris.

“The way the others would wish ‘best of luck’, it would be in a way that would convey to me that I now needed to change the colour (of the medal). It tells you the kind of exceptions that are there,” he said.

Harvinder, who was drawn into para archery after the 2012 Olympics, said he aims to finish his PhD which had to be put on the hold as his career took off in sports.

“I was active in studies until 2018. From 2012, I would study in the morning and practice in the evening and there would be days when I would have two sessions,” he said.

“I got busier in sports after I got the medal (gold in Asian Para Games) in 2018 and because of all of that, my PhD got delayed.” “I am doing PhD in economics from the Punjab University in Patiala, and since I have to win medals for the country, preparations for big tournaments also happened at big level which does not give me time, but I hope to finish my PhD in the next few months,” Harvinder said.

The 33-year-old also wants to relive the experience of seeing the Indian flag held up high and the national anthem being played as he wishes to win more medals.

“Every athlete dreams to win the gold medals, that their country’s flag flies high, the national anthem gets sung… all that happened here and I would hope that I am able to replicate it in the next competitions such as the World Championships,” he said.

Harvinder said he was mentally prepared to tackle the pressure in the Paralympics.

“I had handled the pressure before, of the semifinals and of the podium. I had it in my mind that I have to win (the gold), but the challenge was to bring it out in terms of performance and we were successful in it,” he said.

Harvinder hoped his feat in Paris is able to inspire lot many para athletes and bring more competitors to archery in general.

“The next challenge for me is to maintain this performance. I had got a lot of phone calls and messages after winning the the medal in Tokyo. This medal will contribute in the growth of para archery and archery in India,” he said.

India suffered a setback in the Paralympic Games archery competitions with the Mixed Team Recurve Open category with two-time medallist Harvinder Singh and Pooja Jatyan losing in the shoot-off in the bronze medal match. Harvinder, who won the gold medal in the Men’s Individual Recurve Open in Paris, and Pooja missed out on a medal as they went down to Ziva Lavrinc and Dejan Fabcic of Slovenia in a tie-break shoot-out after the two pairs had finished 4-4 at the end of the four-set semifinal clash.

Harvinder and Pooja had started with a bang as they won the first set 33-30, as Fabcic started with two sevens. The Indians however lost the next set as they could manage only 29 points with Harvinder scoring a 6 and Pooja 5 on their first arrows. Though Harvinder shot a 10 in his second arrow, they still lost as the Slovenians scored two eights and two 9s.

The Indian pair surged ahead 4-2 by winning the third set with both Harvinder and Pooja landing a 10 each besides two 9s. The Slovenians had a 10 and two 8s but a seven by Dejan Fabcic meant they lost the third set 34-38.

The Indians failed to capitalise on the opportunity as a seven and a five by Pooja meant they could manage only 29 points while their opponents tallied 34 thanks to a 10,9 and 8 besides a 7.

In the shoot-off, Harvinder scored eight and Pooja nine for a score of 17 while Ziva Lavrinc scored a 10 while her partner struck nine to seal bronze, their maiden Paralympic Games medal.

Earlier, Harvinder and Pooja had lost to eventual gold medallist Elkisabetta Mijno and Stefano Travisani of Italy in the semifinal. The Indian duo went down 2-6 in the last-four clash as the Italians shot brilliantly including a perfect 40 in the second set. The Indians had done well to win the third set with three 9s and a 10 while Travisani scored a seven as India won 37-35.

But the Italians won the next set 38-37 to eventually seal a place in the final.

Harvinder and Pooja had moved into the quarterfinals with a close 5-4 win over the Australian duo of Taymon Kenton-Smith and Amanda Jennings in a shoot-off.

On Wednesday night, Harvinder made history by becoming India’s first-ever Olympic or Paralympic champion in archery. The 33-year-old showed a stellar performance en route to a gold medal in the recurve men’s competition at the Paris 2024.

Three years ago in the Tokyo Para Games, he reached the first milestone. His bronze was India’s premiere medal at either the Olympics or Paralympics achieved in archery.

Harvinder Singh’s calm composure and precision turned dreams into reality as he became India’s first-ever Paralympic gold medalist in archery on Wednesday. Pursuing PhD in Economics, the 33-year-old Indian, who lost to Kevin Mather of the USA in the Tokyo semifinals before securing a bronze, showed neither fatigue not nerves to secure five back-to-back wins in a day to bag his second successive Paralympics medal. Reserving his best for the final, Harvinder nailed three 10s in his last four arrows to knock out his 44-year-old opponent from Poland Lukasz Ciszek 6-0 (28-24, 28-27, 29-25) for India’s second medal in archery at the ongoing Paralympics.

Rakesh Kumar and Sheetal Devi had won a bronze medal in the mixed compound open category on Monday.

Harvinder, the first Indian Paralympic medallist in archery, dispatched world No. 9 Hector Julio Ramirez of Colombia 6-2 in the quarterfinals, having earlier eliminated Tseng Lung-Hui of Chinese Taipei 7-3 in the round of 32.

In the pre-quarters, he rallied from an initial set deficit to edge out Setiawan Setiawan of Indonesia 6-2.

He became the first Indian archer to enter the Paralympic final when he overturned a 1-3 deficit to triumph over Iran’s Mohammad Reza Arab Ameri 7-3.

In each of his victories, Harvinder showcased his resilience, consistently staging comebacks to stay in the hunt.

In the final, Harvinder Singh displayed a different level of precision, conceding only two points to secure the first set with a commanding four-point lead.

Though Ciszek rallied in the second set, landing three 9s, Harvinder’s unflinching focus and consistent shooting — scoring another 28 — enabled him to edge out Ciszek by a single point, extending his lead to 4-0.

Harvinder Singh delivered a hat-trick of 10s, including a perfect inner 10 (X), intensifying the pressure on his opponent.

Ciszek faltered with a 7 and followed with a 9, while Harvinder clinched the gold with a decisive 9 on his final arrow.

In the stands, Sheetal Devi was seen celebrating exuberantly as Harvinder bowed, embraced his coach, and proudly waved the Tricolour.

In the semifinal, Harvinder narrowly dropped the first set 25-26 and tied the second 27-27.

Maintaining his composure, Harvinder delivered splendid performances with successive 10s on his final arrows of the third and fourth sets, clinching them 27-25 and 26-24 to take a 5-3 lead.

Needing a set win in the final end to avoid a shoot-off, Harvinder faced a strong challenge from Ameri, who opened with an X (inner 10) and followed with an 8 to level the set at 18-18, setting up a tense final arrow.

Under pressure, Ameri faltered with a 7, allowing Harvinder to close out the match with an 8 and advance.

In recurve open class, archers shoot from a standing position at a distance of 70m at a 122cm target made up of 10 concentric circles, scoring from 10 points down to 1 point from the centre outwards.

Hailing from a family of farmers from Ajit Nagar in Haryana, Harvinder faced significant adversity early in life.

When he was just one and a half years old, he contracted dengue and due to the side effects of some injections administered to him, both his legs were left impaired.

Despite this early challenge, he found a passion for archery after getting inspiration from 2012 London Paralympics.

He made his debut at the 2017 Para Archery World Championship, finishing seventh.

A gold medal at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Para Games followed, and during the COVID-19 lockdown, his father turned their farm into an archery range to support his training.

Harvinder made history by winning India’s first ever archery medal — a bronze — at the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago.

Harvinder Singh scripted history by becoming the first Indian archer to clinch a gold at the Paralympics after world champion shot-putter Sachin Sarjerao Khilari’s record-shattering silver-winning effort as the country’s athletes continued to surpass expectations in its best ever performance at the Games. The 33-year-old Harvinder, who became the first Indian to win an archery medal at the Games with a bronze three years ago in Tokyo, bettered the colour of his medal in a superlative performance of five consecutive wins.

He defeated Poland’s Lukasz Ciszek 6-0 in a one-sided final to script history for himself and the country. Both legs of the Haryana-archer were impaired while he was still a toddler owing to a dengue treatment adversely affecting him.

Earlier, the 34-year-old Khilari pulled off a 16.32m throw in his second attempt of the F46 category final to better his own Asian record of 16.30m which he set in May while winning gold in the World Para-Athletics Championships in Japan.

Their performance took India’s medal haul to 22 and the nation is currently placed 15th in the overall standings with four gold, eight silver and 10 bronze medals.

Greg Stewart of Canada defended his Tokyo Paralympics gold with a throw of 16.38m, while Luka Bakovic of Croatia took the bronze with 16.27m.

Khilari’s silver was also India’s 11th medal from track-and-field, the Tokyo haul of one gold, five silver and two bronze medals long overhauled.

Late on Tuesday night, Indians won silver and bronze in both men’s high jump T63 and javelin throw F46 after Deepthi Jeevanji’s bronze in the women’s 400m T20 category in India’s best day at the Games.

Sharad Kumar and Mariyappan Thangavelu won silver and bronze respectively in the men’s high jump T63 while Ajeet Singh and Sundar Singh Gurjar took the second and third sports in the javelin throw F46 final.

F46 classification is for athletes with arm deficiency, impaired muscle power or impaired passive range of movement in arms, with athletes competing in a standing position.

Hailing from a farming family at Karagani village in Maharashtra’s Sangli district, Khilari met with an accident during his childhood. The injury resulted in gangrene of the skin on his elbow and muscle atrophy. Even after several surgeries, his arm never recovered. He also lost his mother when he was young.

“I had wanted to win the gold medal, but it did not happen. It’s my best distance but I am not satisfied. I feel I could have done better. It was not my day,” Khilari said about his performance on Wednesday.

Simran enters 100m semis

World champion sprinter Simran entered the semifinals of the 100m (T12) event with a season’s best timing of 12.17sec. The runner was visually impaired as an infant after being born prematurely.

After the heat race of Wednesday, she was ranked second overall, finishing behind reigning Paralympic champion and world record holder Omara Durand of Cuba, who also ran a season’s best of 11.87s, in the 16-member field.

The semifinal will take place on Thursday.

Tokyo silver-medallist Bhavina ousted

India’s challenge in the women’s singles table tennis competition after Tokyo edition’s silver-medallist Bhavinaben Patel lost to China’s Ying Zhou 3-1 in the class 4 quarterfinal.

Bhavinaben, who became India’s first-ever medal winner in the sport with her silver in the Tokyo Paralympics, fought hard in the first two games and even won the third but eventually lost to her Chinese rival 12-14, 9-11, 11-8, 6-11.

Earlier, the other women’s singles player in class 3, Sonalben Patel lost to Croatia’s Andela Muzinic Vincetic in the round of 16.

Bhavinaben was diagnosed with polio when she was one-year old.

She competes in class 4 which is meant for wheel-chair bound athletes with functional arms and hands.

No medals in shooting

In Chateauroux, Indian shooters Nihal Singh and Rudransh Khandelwal failed to make the final of mixed 50m pistol (SH1) competition.

Nihal, the 2023 world championship bronze medallist, finished 19th. He had an aggregate score of 522 across six series.

Competing in his maiden Paralympics, 17-year-old Rudransh, who lost his left leg in a freak mishap when he was just eight-years-old, scored 517 to sign off in the 22nd spot in the qualification round.