Sheetal Devi made her Paralympic debut with a bang, smashing past her personal best and breaking the world record as it existed before the Paris 2024 women’s individual compound open ranking round to finish second in the event on Thursday.
Sheetal recorded a score of 703, which itself was enough to break the existing world record but Turkey’s Oznur Cure Girdi ended up taking the new world record in the end with a score of 704.
The 17-year-old, who shoots with her legs as she was born without arms, has thus got a bye in the round of 32 along with the rest of the archers who finished in the top four of the ranking round. She will now feature in the round of 16 where she will face the winner of round of 32 match between Mariana Zuniga of Chile and Choi Na Mi of Korea, who finished 15th and 18th respectively.
Meanwhile, India’s Sarita finished ninth with a score of 682 in the same event.
This is the second time that Sheetal has gone past the ranking round world record in the same month, having earlier broken Great Britain’s Phoebe Pine Paterson’s score of 698. However, Cure had gone past that mark as well later on.
Devi was born with phocomelia syndrome, a rare congenital disorder which kept her limbs underdeveloped.
She had become a sensation during last year’s Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China, where she became the first Indian woman to win two gold medals in a single edition of the Games.
She had also won a silver at the Games. Devi also became the first armless woman to win a Para World Archery Championships medal last year.
Tokyo Paralympics bronze medallist Harvinder Singh finished ninth in the men’s individual recurve open ranking round with a score of 637. Frenchman Guillaume Toucoullet topped with a new Paralympic Record score of 652.
