Harvinder, Pooja fall short in shoot-off for bronze medal
Paris: History-making Indian archer Harvinder Singh’s pursuit of a double medal at the Paris Paralympics ended in heartbreak as he, along with Pooja Jatyan, lost to Slovenia in the shoot-off in a tense recurve mixed team bronze playoff match here on Thursday.
After being outplayed by the top-seeded Italy in the semifinals, the fifth-seeded Harvinder and Pooja, who both hail from Haryana, slipped twice from a 2-0 and 4-2 lead to lose to Ziva Lavrinc and Dejan Fabcic 4-5 (19-17) in the bronze medal match.
After clinching the first set 33-30, a couple of stray arrows -- 6 by Pooja and 5 from Harvinder -- allowed Slovenia to bring it on level with a 34-29 win in the second set.
Harvinder continued from where he left in the second set by nailing two 10s, while Pooja hit in the 9 ring twice that brought them back on track with a 38-33 win in the third set that also restored their lead (4-2).
But they failed to close it out, with the duo hitting a 5 and 7 in the fourth set as Slovenia won the fourth set 34-29 to force a shoot-off.
Fabic made a strong start in the shoot-off hitting the 9 before Ziva wrapped it up with a perfect 10 as Harvinder and Pooja managed 8 and 9. I wa a day after he became the only Indian archer to win a gold, Harvinder teamed up with Pooja to raise hopes of securing an unparalleled second medal by edging out Australia’s Taymon Kenton-Smith and Amanda Jennings 5-4 (16-5) in the shoot-off in the opening round of 16.
In the quarters, the Indian duo outclassed higher-seeded Polish rivals in straight sets.
The Polish duo of Milena Olszewska and Lukasz Ciszek struggled for consistency while Harvinder and Pooja maintained their momentum to seal it 6-0.
In the semis, they fought hard before going down against top seeds Elisabetta Mijno and Stefano Travisani 2-6.
After taking the first set 36-31, Mijno and Travisani nailed four 10s in a row in the second set to race to a 4-0 lead.
With time running out, Pooja and Harvinder fought back when they hit two 9s to take a two-point lead at the halfway mark of
the third set.
