Paris Paralympics: Harvinder, Pooja lose shoot-off to Slovenia, miss bronze by a whisker

Paris, Sep 5 (IANS) India suffered a setback in the Paralympic Games archery competitions with the Mixed Team Recurve Open category with two-time medallist Harvinder Singh and Pooja Jatyan losing in the shoot-off in the bronze medal match.
Harvinder, who won the gold medal in the Men’s Individual Recurve Open in Paris, and Pooja missed out on a medal as they went down to Ziva Lavrinc and Dejan Fabcic of Slovenia in a tie-break shoot-out after the two pairs had finished 4-4 at the end of the four-set semifinal clash.
Harvinder and Pooja had started with a bang as they won the first set 33-30, as Fabcic started with two sevens. The Indians however lost the next set as they could manage only 29 points with Harvinder scoring a 6 and Pooja 5 on their first arrows. Though Harvinder shot a 10 in his second arrow, they still lost as the Slovenians scored two eights and two 9s.
The Indian pair surged ahead 4-2 by winning the third set with both Harvinder and Pooja landing a 10 each besides two 9s. The Slovenians had a 10 and two 8s but a seven by Dejan Fabcic meant they lost the third set 34-38.
The Indians failed to capitalise on the opportunity as a seven and a five by Pooja meant they could manage only 29 points while their opponents tallied 34 thanks to a 10,9 and 8 besides a 7.
In the shoot-off, Harvinder scored eight and Pooja nine for a score of 17 while Ziva Lavrinc scored a 10 while her partner struck nine to seal bronze, their maiden Paralympic Games medal.
Earlier, Harvinder and Pooja had lost to eventual gold medallist Elkisabetta Mijno and Stefano Travisani of Italy in the semifinal. The Indian duo went down 2-6 in the last-four clash as the Italians shot brilliantly including a perfect 40 in the second set. The Indians had done well to win the third set with three 9s and a 10 while Travisani scored a seven as India won 37-35.
But the Italians won the next set 38-37 to eventually seal a place in the final.
Harvinder and Pooja had moved into the quarterfinals with a close 5-4 win over the Australian duo of Taymon Kenton-Smith and Amanda Jennings in a shoot-off.
On Wednesday night, Harvinder made history by becoming India’s first-ever Olympic or Paralympic champion in archery. The 33-year-old showed a stellar performance en route to a gold medal in the recurve men’s competition at the Paris 2024.
Three years ago in the Tokyo Para Games, he reached the first milestone. His bronze was India’s premiere medal at either the Olympics or Paralympics achieved in archery.
–IANS
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