Sheetal Devi shows why she is the gold standard

In the Round of 16, Sheetal Devi scored 149 out of a possible 150. This score was one no one had achieved in an individual women’s para compound archery match. Yet here was the 19-year-old from Jammu and Kashmir, who took up the sport barely five years ago, setting yet another milestone in a journey of milestones.

In 2023, she became the first armless woman to win a World Para Archery Championship medal when she clinched a silver. Last year, she became the first to win gold. At the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Multipurpose Square, however, that 149 helped her set a new world record.

Even before the tournament began, she was the player to beat. After all, the Paris Paralympic bronze-medallist was the defending champion in the individual women’s compound archery event at the Asian Para Games. On Thursday, though, as Sheetal competed in the final at the ongoing edition in Aichi-Nagoya, the elements started to play a few tricks.

After the second End, Sheetal was trailing by four points against Singapore’s Syahidah Nur. Then, despite the tricky conditions, she fired six consecutive 10s – four in the inner 10 circle – to take a lead she would not relinquish, as she went on to win gold by a score of 142-139.

This was her third medal at the 2026 Asian Para Games, having won silver in the women’s compound doubles event with Payal Nag, and a gold earlier in the day with Toman Kumar in the mixed compound event.

“There was some pressure (I felt) because of the wind,” she later said to the media. “But my coach told me not to worry and just reset for the next End.

“The silver yesterday was very good for me. But the gold I got today, I'm happy that what I had set to do, I have done. We work hard the entire year and you get to see only in one day how much you have worked and what you have done. That we can see today.”

Sheetal will leave Japan with two golds and a silver medal to add to her constantly growing list of accolades. Interestingly, she won an identical tally in the exact same events from the previous edition at the delayed 2023 Games in Hangzhou, China.

Her two gold medals on Thursday were a part of the 24 more medals won by the Indian contingent on the day, as the country’s total medal tally now stands at 88 (21 gold, 26 silver, 41 bronze) at the end of the fourth day of the quadrennial competition.

Like Sheetal, Dilip Gavit also clinched his second gold medal of the ongoing Games. A day earlier, the 23-year-old from Nashik won the men’s 100m T47 race. And on Thursday defended his 400m T47 gold medal by clocking 48.27s, a full 1.31 seconds faster than second placed Kakeru Ishida of Japan.

Ravanni Valasanaini also won her second medal of the current edition, picking up bronze in the women’s 400m T11 event, just days after she won bronze in the women’s 1500m T11 race.

India added three more medals in the men’s high jump T63 event, as Shailesh Kumar, Varun Bhati and Rahul Saroha won gold, silver and bronze respectively to make it a clean sweep in an event that involved six competitors. In the process, Shailesh, the reigning world champion, also managed to defend his title with a Games record attempt of 1.89m.

Also leaping his way to a second consecutive gold medal at the Asian Para Games was Solairaj Dharmaraj, who defended his crown in the men’s long jump T44/T62/T64 event, with an attempt of 7.15m.

Gold medals also came through Suvarna Raj in the women’s discus throw F54, while Anjanaben Bumbadiya finished first and compatriot Jayanti Behera won silver in the women’s 400m T47.

In archery, Swati Chaudhary took home the silver after losing a tight final in the women’s individual W1 to China’s Mengkan Cen 4-6. There were also silver medals from Tejalben Damor in the women’s 400m T12, and para swimmer Kapil Kumar in the men’s 400m freestyle S10.

A few bronze medals came in from para swimming events. Ravi Budigina finished third in the men’s 50m freestyle S13 final, Swatik Patil won bronze men’s 100m breaststroke SB9, while Tejas Nandakumar also took the bronze in the men’s 100m backstroke S7.

After winning bronze in the women’s individual Class 4/5 table tennis event, Bhavina Patel paired up with Shubham Wadhwa to win bronze in the mixed doubles class 7 event.

The badminton contingent also started to win medals, with seven bronze medals coming in on Thursday.

Manisha Ramdass lost to compatriot Thulasimathi Murugesan (who will compete in the gold medal match) in the women’s singles SU5 semi-final to secure bronze. Ramdass also won bronze with Pramod Bhagat after they lost their semi-final to Indonesia’s Leani Oktila and Hikmat Ramdani in the mixed doubles SL3-SU5 event.

There were also bronze medals for Abhijeet Sakhuja (men’s singles SL4), Sanjana Kumari (women’s singles SL3), Suhas Yathiraj (men’s singles SL4), Suryakant Yadav and Naveen Sivakumar (men’s doubles SL3-SU5) and Nithya Sre Sivan and Krishna Nagar (mixed doubles SH6).