Sheetal Devi finished second in the Paris 2024 women’s individual compound open ranking round on Thursday, making her Paralympic debut. She beat her personal best and broke the world record that had been in place prior to the event. Sheetal recorded a score of 703, which itself was sufficient to break the current world record however Turkey’s Oznur Fix Girdi wound up taking the new world record eventually with a score of 704.
Because she was born without arms, the 17-year-old, who shoots with her legs, has a bye in the round of 32 along with the other archers who finished in the top four of the ranking round. She will now compete in the round of 16 against the winner of the round of 32 match between Choi Na Mi of Korea and Mariana Zuniga of Chile, who finished 15th and 18th, respectively. In the meantime, India’s Sarita placed ninth in the same competition with a score of 682
This is the second time that Sheetal has gone past the positioning round world record around the same time, having prior broken Extraordinary England’s Phoebe Pine Paterson’s score of 698. Cure, on the other hand, had surpassed that threshold later on.
Devi was born with the rare congenital disorder phocomelia syndrome, which prevented her limbs from developing fully. She had made headlines last year when she won two gold medals at the Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China. She was the first Indian woman to do so in a single Games. She also had a silver medal from the Games. Last year, Devi also became the first woman without arms to win a medal at the Para World Archery Championships.
Harvinder Singh, who won bronze at the Tokyo Paralympics, placed ninth in the men’s individual recurve open ranking round with a score of 637. Frenchman Guillaume Toucoullet finished off with another Paralympic Record score of 652.
