Phoebe pine

Individual Compound Open Ranking Round: India's top hope in women's para-archery, Sheetal Devi started the Paralympic Games with an impressive performance in the Women's Individual Compound Open Ranking Round here, qualifying for the next stage with a second-place finish on Thursday. In the Men's Recurve Individual Ranking Round, India's Tokyo Paralympic Games bronze medal winner Harvinder Singh finished 9th with a score of 637 (19 10s, 5 Xs).

Sheetal, the only armless female archer in the fray in the competition, made the country proud on the global stage by scoring a sensational 703 points in the qualification round. This is her personal best score and just one point short of the World Record.

In the Compound Open Ranking Round, the 16-year-old Sheetal, who participates in the ST category, shot 59 arrows in the 10-zone and 24 in the inner 10 (bullseye) as she ended up with a score of 703. Sheetal managed a score better than the World Record of 698 set by Phoebe Pine Paterson of Great Britain in August 2024.