Sheetal Devi breaks new ground, qualifies for India's able-bodied archery team for Asia Cup

Para-archer Sheetal Devi, the satellite compound champion calved without arms, shattered different obstruction connected Thursday by being picked successful the Indian able-bodied inferior squad for the upcoming Asia Cup Stage 3 successful Jeddah.

Her enactment marks different historical archetypal for Sheetal — the inclusion of a para-athlete successful an Indian squad for an able-bodied planetary competition.

"When I started competing, I had a tiny imagination — to 1 time vie alongside the able-bodied. I didn’t marque it astatine first, but I kept going, learning from each setback. Today, that imagination is 1 measurement closer,” Sheetal wrote connected societal media aft the announcement.

Winner of a bronze medal successful the mixed squad compound lawsuit astatine the 2024 Paris Paralympics, Sheetal drew inspiration from Turkey's Paris Paralympic champion Oznur Cure Girdi, who besides competes successful able-bodied events astatine the satellite level.

Competing among much than 60 able-bodied archers from crossed the state nether identical conditions, the 18-year-old from Jammu and Kashmir finished 3rd wide successful the rigorous four-day nationalist enactment trials held successful Sonipat.

Sheetal scored 703 points successful the qualification rounds — 352 successful the archetypal and 351 successful the 2nd — matching apical qualifier Tejal Salve's total.

In the last rankings, Tejal (15.75 points) and Vaidehi Jadhav (15 points) took the apical 2 spots, portion Sheetal secured 3rd spot with 11.75 points, narrowly edging retired Maharashtra’s Dnyaneshwari Gadadhe by 0.25 points.

Trained astatine the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board Sports Complex successful Katra, Sheetal has already carved her sanction successful past by becoming the archetypal pistillate armless satellite champion successful para archery this year.

Teams

Recurve: Men's: Rampal Choudhary (AAI), Rohit Kumar (Uttar Pradesh), Mayank Kumar (Haryana);

Women: Kondapavuluri Yuktha Sri (Andhra Pradesh), Vaishnavi Kulkarni (Maharashtra), Kratika Bichpuriya (Madhya Pradesh).

Compound: Men: Pradhuman Yadav, Vasu Yadav, Devansh Singh (all Rajasthan);

Women's: Tejal Salve, Vaidehi Jadhav (both Maharashtra), Sheetal Devi (Jammu and Kashmir).