SportsPara sport
Sheetal Devi and Toman Kumar set mixed team world record in Asian Para Games ranking round
The Indian compound pair scored 1,402 in Okazaki, two points better than the old mark, after Sheetal equalled the women's individual world record with 704 out of 720.
Key points
- Sheetal Devi and Toman Kumar scored 1,402, a new compound mixed team world record.
- Sheetal shot 704 out of 720 to equal the individual world record and top the women's ranking.
- Toman's 698 was a personal best and put him third in the men's ranking.
India’s para archers made a statement on the first morning of the Asian Para Games, with Sheetal Devi and Toman Kumar setting a compound mixed team world record in the ranking round at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Multipurpose Square on Monday.
The pair’s combined 1,402 beat the previous world record of 1,400, which Sheetal had set with Rakesh Kumar at the World Para Archery Series in Ahmedabad earlier this year. It also blew past the Asian Para Games record of 1,382, set by China in Hangzhou in 2023.
Sheetal matches the world’s best
The team record was built on an outstanding individual round from Sheetal. The 2023 Asian Para Games champion and Paris Paralympics bronze medallist shot 704 out of a possible 720, equalling the women’s compound world record and setting a new Asian record.
She finished well clear of the field. Singapore’s Nur Syahidah Alim was second with 683 and China’s Xueqing Xu third with 680. Payal Nag, the other Indian in the event, was fifth with 675, and her score with Sheetal’s gave India top spot in the women’s compound doubles ranking round with 1,379.
Toman, a world champion and world No. 1 in his classification, shot a personal best of 698 to finish third in the men’s compound ranking. China’s Yicheng Zhang topped the men’s standings with 708, an Asian record, ahead of Xinliang Ai on 704.
Top seeds across the range
The ranking round only decides seedings, but India came out of it at or near the top of several draws. Swati Chaudhary will be the top seed in the women’s W1 event after scoring 648 in a field of six. In the men’s recurve, Harvinder Singh, who shot 631, and Vijay Sundi, on 630, finished fifth and seventh individually and together topped the doubles ranking round with 1,261.
Sheetal and Toman now turn to the medal rounds as the pair to beat, with China’s strong men’s compound scores a reminder that the record alone guarantees nothing.
The archery records came on the same day India won their first medals of the Games, with Mona Agarwal taking gold and Avani Lekhara silver in the women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1.