India made World Paralympic Archery Championship history on Wednesday as the duo of Shyam Sundar Swami and Jyoti Baliyan secured the country at least a silver medal by reaching the final of the open mixed compound team event.
The Indian pair will face the Russian team in the summit clash on Friday.
Indian para archers have won medals in almost every event since 2017 except the World Championships.
The duo of Shyam Sundar and Jyoti Baliyan, who have already won silver medals at the Fazza 2021 world ranking event in the United Arab Emirates and the Bangkok 2019 Asian Championships, beat the French pair of Julie Chupin and Thierry Joussaume 151-145 in the semi-finals to secure at least a silver medal.
In the quarterfinals, they beat Maria Andrea Virgilio and Matteo Bonacina of Italy 147-146 in an intense match. They had begun defeating Iraq 151-138 in an unbalanced contest.
The Indian duo will face the Russian Archery Federation on Friday in pursuit of a historic gold medal.
“I’m thrilled to be back on the firing line and hope to go home with my first world championship medal,” said Jyoti.
It was at the same Dubai Club for People of Determination venue where she won silver with Shyam at the Fazza Para Archery World Ranking Tournament last year.
“I always had good results in Dubai,” added the archer, who also competed in the individual and women’s team events.
“It’s a great feeling to reach the finals at the start of the championships and Dubai has been a happy hunting ground for the whole team. I hope to make it memorable,” she added.
Confident of becoming the country’s first world champion, Shyam said: “I felt like we could go for gold. It’s very windy but we practiced shooting in all conditions.
“I think I’ll win the gold medal in the final. Dubai is lucky for the Indian team. »
India is represented by nine archers in the World Paralympic Archery Championships, including Tokyo Paralympic Games bronze medalist Harvinder Singh, who will start his campaign on Thursday.
Harvinder had won gold at the 2018 Asian Paralympic Games and bronze at the Tokyo Paralympic Games.
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