Indian para-archers ensure 1 gold, 2 silver at Fazza World Ranking tournament

Rakesh, seeded eighth in the quarterfinals said, "Swami will never be an opponent for me. We both will play for India and the best player will take the gold on Friday."

Dubai: Para-archers Rakesh Kumar and Shyam Sundar Swami set up an all-Indian men’s compound open final after brilliant victories in the last four stage of the 7th Fazza Para Archery World Ranking tournament here.

Jyoti Baliyan also cruised to the final in the women’s event, defeating Russia’s Dzhioeva Anastasia by a point (139-138). Thus, the archers have ensured at least two silver and a gold medal for the country in the individual events.

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In the semi-final match, Rakesh defeated Turkey’s Aygan Erdogan 143-138 before Swami overcame a strong challenge from Slovakia’s former world no. 1 and last year’s champion Marcel Pavlik by just two points (145-143).

Rakesh, seeded eighth after qualifying and who had knocked out top qualifier Serhiy Atamanenko of Ukraine in the quarterfinals, said: “He (Swami) will never be an opponent for me. We both will play for India and the best player will take the gold on Friday.”

“If we start looking at the score then there will be pressure on us. So, I will be focusing on my technique which my coach had taught in training.” Baliyan, who had won the mixed team silver along with Swami at the 2019 Asian Championship, will take on another Russian, Stepanida Artakhinova in the summit clash.

“I was a little nervous at the start but controlled my nerves at the shooting line and shot confidently. My performance here has definitely boosted my confidence to secure a quota for India when we travel to the Czech Republic, the last qualifying event,” Baliyan said.

In the women’s recurve event, Pooja went down 0-6 to Iran’s Paralympic medallist Zahra Nemati.

Earlier, recurve para archers Harvinder Singh and Vivek Chikara started the second day on a poor note exiting in the quarterfinals.