Asian Para Games 2023: Sheetal Devi-Rakesh Kumar clinch gold in archery Compound Mixed Team event

Both athletes had also previously won silver medals in compound doubles events.

India's Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar combined to win gold in compound mixed team open archery event after beating home favourites China (151-149) in a close encounter at Asian Para Games 2023. After winning two silver and one bronze medal yesterday, the Indian archery contingent finally won gold. Both Sheetal and Rakesh have now won two medals each at the ongoing continental meet.

The duo started their campaign by registering a comfortable 155-141 win Kazakhstan's Maxatgul and Arlan. In the following round, the pair combined to defeat Iran's Maryam and Hadi 155-145. The Indian pair did not find any difficulty until the final as they defeated both their opponents with ease. However, the battle in the final was way different to the other matches.

Rakesh and Sheetal had a good opening series and took an initial two-point (37-35) lead. In the following series, China fought back to level the scores (38-38) but were once again behind by two points at the halfway mark. As expected, the Chinese duo of Yueshan and Xinliang came close to scoring perfect 40 but somehow missed a target to go a score below.

India had a proper series of 37 but this did not prove enough as the scores stood level. In the final series, the experience of Rakesh Kumar came to the forefront as India shot 39 to China's 37 which proved to be substantial for India winning the gold medal.

Both the archers will now be in action in their respective individual events. Sheetal is scheduled to take on Sarita for a place in the final of women's open compound archery. Meanwhile, Rakesh will clash against Chinese Taipei's Chung-hung in men's singles compound archery semifinals.