India’s Para Archers Make Strong Start as Harvinder, Bhawana Top Doubles Seeding

India made a strong start at the World Archery Para Series in Ahmedabad, with four Indian archers each advancing directly to the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s and women’s recurve open sections.

Reigning Paralympic recurve open champion Harvinder Singh finished third in the men’s qualification round with 636 points out of 720. Iran’s Gholamreza Rahimi topped the qualification with 647 points, followed by Indonesia’s Kholdin with 641.

Parveen was the next-best Indian in fifth place with 633 points, while Sehajveer Singh finished sixth with 626 and Vijay Sundi seventh with 618. All four Indians advanced directly to the pre-quarterfinals based on their qualification rankings.

Third-seeded Harvinder will face China’s 14th seed Gan Jun in the pre-quarterfinals. Sehajveer will take on Slovakia’s Ivan David, Parveen will meet Slovakia’s Ivan Denis, while Sundi will face Indonesia’s Setiawan.

In the women’s recurve open section, Bhawana secured the third seed with 595 points. Indonesia’s Noviera Ross topped the qualification with 603, while Iran’s Somayeh Rahimi Ghadherijani finished second with 602.

Pooja Kumari finished fifth with 573 points, while Rajshri Rathod and another Indian Pooja secured the eighth and ninth seeds respectively with scores of 560 and 527. All four Indian women advanced directly to the pre-quarterfinals.

India also secured the top seed in both doubles events. Harvinder and Parveen finished first in the men’s doubles qualification with a combined score of 1,269 points. The pair have received a direct entry into the semifinals and need one win to assure themselves of a medal.

Bhawana and Pooja Kumari topped the women’s doubles qualification with 1,168 points and also advanced directly to the semifinals, where one victory would guarantee them a medal.

In mixed doubles, Bhawana and Harvinder were seeded third with 1,231 points. They will face sixth-seeded Iraq in the quarterfinals.

The qualification results came after the opening rounds, with archers featuring across recurve and doubles events.