Paris: Tokyo Games bronze-winner Harvinder Singh became the first Indian archer to enter the Paralympic finals by securing four wins in a row in the men’s recurve open competition in Paris on Wednesday. Harvinder overturned a 1-3 deficit to triumph over Mohammad Reza Arab Ameri of Iran 7-3 in the last-four stage. He is now assured of an unprecedented second successive medal in archery at the Games.
In the quarterfinals, Harvinder beat world number nine Hector Julio Ramirez of Colombia. Earlier, he knocked out Tseng Lung-Hui of Chinese Taipei 7-3 in round of 32 before overcoming an opening set deficit to edge out Setiawan Setiawan of Indonesia 6-2 in the last-16 round.
In the pre-quarters, Harvinder lost the first set by just one point (27-28) after a poor 8-point start. But he was quick to regain composure and nailed three 28s in a row to put pressure on his Indonesian opponent. Setiawan managed 25 and 27 and in the fourth set he misfired his arrow to score 15 to concede the match.
Earlier in his opening round, Harvinder drew the first set 25-25, before he shot one 10 and 9 to win the second 27-26 and take 3-1 lead. Lung-Hui dished out a near perfect third set when he dropped just one point to win it 29-26 and bring the scores level at 3-3.
But Lung-Hui faltered in the next two sets as Harvinder held his nerves to win 24-23 and 25-17 and seal his last-16 berth. 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 received injections for treatment. Unfortunately, the side effects of these injections resulted in a loss of function in his legs.
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. Alongside his sporting success, he is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in economics.
