India’s Sheetal Devi Clinches Para World Archery Title at Just 18
Armless Indian archer clinches individual gold, adds silver and bronze to her medal tally in Gwangju.
Gwangju (South Korea), Sep 27 — Eighteen-year-old Indian para archer Sheetal Devi scripted history by winning the women’s compound individual gold at the Para World Archery Championships, defeating Turkiye’s world No.1 Oznur Cure Girdi 146-143 in a nail-biting final on Saturday.
Sheetal, the only armless archer in the competition, shoots using her feet and chin. This remarkable win marks her first individual world championship gold and adds to her overall tally of three medals in the tournament.
Earlier, she paired with Toman Kumar to claim mixed team bronze after defeating Great Britain’s Jodie Grinham and Nathan MacQueen 152-149. In the compound women’s open team final, Sheetal and Sarita settled for silver, losing to Turkey 148-152.
In the individual final, Sheetal displayed composure under pressure. After tying the opening round at 29-all, she surged ahead in the second with three perfect 10s. Despite dropping a point in the fourth round, she sealed the win in style with a flawless final end of three 10s.
Her victory also avenged her narrow defeat to Girdi at the 2023 Pilsen World Championships, where the Turkish archer had edged her out 140-138.
With this triumph, Sheetal not only claimed her maiden world championship gold but also reaffirmed her status as one of India’s brightest young sporting icons.
