A five-member para archery contingent is already to get the gold for the country and are doing their best at the debut in the Paralympics. The Indian crop is young and was born in the 90s with Rakesh Kumar being the eldest one who was born in the year 1985.
The other members include Harvinder Singh, Jyoti Balyan, Shyam Sundar, and Vivek Chikara who are all heading ahead with their passion for the event which will be conducted in Tokyo and is known as Tokyo Paralympics. Archers Harvinder and Vivek will be participating in the men’s recurve events, whereas Jyoti, Rakesh, and Shyam Sundar are all set to be an action in their respective compound events.
Talking about the compound archers, they all will be participating in the mixed team events too. Also, they will participate in the target Olympic podium scheme that is TOPS. Shyam Sundar is the youngest of all of them and he has been training at the SAI center which is located in Sonepat under the coach Anil Joshi. The Rajasthani compound para talented actor enters into the Tokyo Paralympics on the back of 2 silver medals.
He got the medals in the individual as well as in the mixed team events at the famous world ranking tournament, FAZZA Cup, conducted in Dubai 2021. Shyam Sundar also is a very renowned Archer now, as he has become the very first para, Archer, from Rajasthan to qualify for this paralympic games. Well, many of the Indian fans are waiting to watch his skills. The archer’s limbs are actually paralyzed and thus he uses his teeth to pull the bowstring. Talking about Jyoti Balyan, she is from Uttar Pradesh and is a 27-year-old who has also won 2 silver medals in Dubai this year.
She is suffering from lifelong Polo because she was given the wrong injection in her leg at a very young age. Jothi and Rakesh Kumar both train under the coach Kuldeep Kumar and are trained in the Shri Vaishno Devi sports complex located in Katra, Jammu. Rakesh hailing from Jammu and Kashmir also won a gold medal in Dubai earlier this year in an individual event and he has been in a wheelchair because of an accident he met in the year 2010. Both of his legs got paralyzed in that accident. Haryana-based Archer Harvinder Singh is also a gold medalist and he won the gold medal in the men’s individual recurve open at the Asian para games which were conducted in the year 2018.
He fell ill when he was one and half years old and due to the dengue fever he was administered an injection that had an adverse effect on his legs. His legs stopped functioning properly. Vivek Chikara is also a gold medalist in individual events at the para Asian championship Thailand 2019. He met with an accident so lost his left leg below the knee in the year 2017. The team is very skilled and the archery events will be starting from August 27 in the Tokyo Paralympics.
