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India suffered a setback in the Mixed Team Recurve Open category of the archery events of the Paralympic Games when two-time medallists Harvinder Singh and Pooja Jatayan lost in the shoot-off in the bronze medal match. Harvinder and Pooja, who won gold medals in the men’s individual recurve open in Paris, missed out on a medal as they lost to Slovenia’s pair of Ziva Lavrinc and Dejan Fabic in the tie-break shoot-out after the pair were tied 4-4 in the four-set semifinal match.
Harvinder and Pooja started off with a bang and won the first set 33-30 while Fabic started with two sevens. However, the Indian team lost the next set as they could only manage 29 points with Harvinder scoring 6 on his first arrow and Pooja scoring 5. Though Harvinder scored 10 in his second arrow, they still lost as the Slovenians scored two eights and two 9s.
The Indian pair won the third set to take a 4-2 lead, with Harvinder and Pooja both shooting 10s and two 9s. Slovenia had a 10 and two 8s but a seven from Dejan Fabic saw them lose the third set 34-38.
The Indian team failed to capitalise on the opportunity as Pooja’s seven and five led them to score only 29 points while their opponents scored 34 points with 10, 9, 8 and 7.
In the shoot-off, Harvinder scored eight and Pooja nine for a total of 17 points, while Ziva Lavrinc scored 10 and her partner nine to win the bronze medal, her first Paralympic medal.
Earlier, Harvinder and Pooja lost to the Italian pair of Alcisabetta Mizzno and Stefano Travisani in the semi-finals. The Indian pair lost 2-6 in the last four as the Italian duo hit brilliant shots including a perfect 40 in the second set. The Indians did well to win the third set with three 9s and a 10 while Travisani scored seven points as India won 37-35.
But the Italian team eventually secured a place in the final by winning the next set 38-37.
Harvinder and Pooja had entered the quarterfinals after defeating Australian pair of Tamon Kenton-Smith and Amanda Jennings 5-4 in a shoot-off.
On Wednesday night, Harvinder created history by becoming India’s first Olympic or Paralympic champion in archery. The 33-year-old Harvinder produced a stunning performance to win the gold medal in the recurve men’s event at Paris 2024.
He achieved his first feat three years ago at the Tokyo Para Games. His bronze medal was India’s first medal in archery at the Olympics or Paralympics.
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