New Delhi. Sheetal Devi, a hand-handed archer and Paralympic medalist of Jammu and Kashmir, won the gold medal by defeating Odisha’s Divyang (without hand, without feet) Payal Nag in the much awaited match of Khelo India Para Games here on Sunday. Last winner Sheetal won his second gold medal in the game by returning to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
18-year-old Sheetal won 109–103 against 17-year-old Payal in the Compoundedenry Open Final match. Payal does not have both hands and both legs. She lost her arms and legs due to electric shock in childhood and she targets with artificial legs.
Rakesh Kumar (40 years) and Jyoti Balian (30 years) also won gold medals in their respective matches. Vijay Sundi of Jharkhand defeated Vikas Bhakar of Haryana 6-4 in the male recurve open gold medal match while Pooja from Haryana defeated Rajshree Rathore of Maharashtra 6-4 to win the Women’s Recurve Open Gold Medal. All eyes were on women’s compound gold medal match between Sheetal and Payal.
Sheetal started with a score of eight and seven while Payal started with double 10. However, Payal lost the lead in the third round, where she first scored seven and Sheetal returned to her consecutive best performance of nine and 10. Sheetal won the gold medal in the decisive fifth round.
Sheetal told Sai Media, “Payal played very well in the final and with her constant hard work she will soon win medals for India. I am thankful for the blessings of Mata Rani that I won my second gold medal in Khelo India Para Khel. Payal talked about the technical aspects of the game in his first Khelo India Para Game. ” He said, “Earlier I used to shoot arrows with two tools in my artificial legs, but now I just shoot arrows with one leg. This was a problem in coordinating, but I reached the finals despite inconvenience and today there was a lot of strong wind. But I am happy to compete in the final and win a silver medal. ,
In the men’s compound open gold medal match, Shyam Sundar Swamy of Rajasthan defeated Toman Kumar of Chhattisgarh 140-139. In bronze medal matches, Rakesh Kumar, showing his continuity, defeated Parmendra of Haryana 143–140. Jyoti Balyan won the gold medal by defeating the Lalpati of Delhi 136-132. Dhanna Godara of Rajasthan and Sukriti Singh of Jharkhand won the recurve open bronze medals of men and women respectively.