 Sanjay Pandita
Early Times Report
Jammu, Sept 9: Sheetal Devi, the reigning world champion and pride of Jammu and Kashmir, produced a masterclass in composure in front of a roaring home crowd in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, clinching her maiden individual title on the World Archery Para Series circuit in a nerve-shredding shoot-off.
The 19-year-old held her nerve against Kazakhstan's Aizada Seidan after the two archers finished locked at 144-144 in the compound women's final. With gold on the line, Sheetal stepped up and drilled a perfect 10 dead in the inner ring — and simply smiled. The Indian contingent around the range knew it was over before Seidan even drew her bow. The Kazakh archer's response, a nine, wasn't enough. Ahmedabad erupted in celebration as India's golden girl sealed the title.
It was the perfect finish to a tournament Sheetal had dominated from the start. She topped qualification with a season-best 698 — breaking her own Asian record by a point — and cruised into the final with a 10-point cushion over Seidan and a first-round bye as top seed.
Beyond her personal triumph, Sheetal's gold crowned a landmark occasion: India's first-ever hosting of a World Archery Para Series event.
The victory couldn't have come at a better moment. With the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Para Games barely two months away, Sheetal now arrives in Japan with fresh momentum, eyeing a defence of both the compound women's individual and mixed-team titles she won at Hangzhou 2022.
Her Ahmedabad campaign didn't end with individual gold — she added a mixed-team bronze alongside Toman Ku The 19-year-old held her nerve against Kazakhstan’s Aizada Seidan after the two archers finished locked at 144-144 in the compound women’s final.
With gold on the line, Sheetal stepped up and drilled a perfect 10 dead in the inner ring — and simply smiled.
The Indian contingent around the range knew it was over before Seidan even drew her bow.
The Kazakh archer’s response, a nine, wasn’t enough. Ahmedabad erupted in celebration as India’s golden girl sealed the title.
India, as a whole, enjoyed a golden run through the tournament. On the penultimate day alone, the contingent claimed two golds, two silvers and a bronze — Toman Kumar and Shyam Sundar Swami won the men's compound team title over Iraq (152-139), Harvinder Singh and Vijay Sundi fought back for a gritty 6-2 win over Slovakia in the men's recurve team final, and Bhawna-Pooja took silver in the women's recurve team event.
For Sheetal, Ahmedabad is just the latest entry in what is fast becoming one of Indian sport's most extraordinary stories.
Born without arms, she made history in 2025 by becoming the first armless woman to win a para archery world title, defeating defending champion Öznur Cüre Girdi 146-143 at the World Archery Para Championships in Gwangju. That triumph followed a silver at the 2023 World Championships and back-to-back Asian Para Games golds in Hangzhou, where she claimed both individual and mixed-team titles alongside a team silver.
At Paris 2024, she etched her name into the record books again — becoming India's youngest-ever Paralympic medallist at just 17, winning compound mixed-team bronze alongside Rakesh Kumar.
She has since climbed to World No. 1 in compound women's para archery and was honoured as the para women's winner at the 2023 World Archery Awards.
With a world title, a Paralympic medal, two Asian Para Games golds and now her first individual World Para Series crown, Sheetal Devi's message to Aichi-Nagoya is unmistakable: pressure is her playground, and gold is becoming a habit. |