India’s 16-year old armless archer Sheetal Devi rose to the top spot in the Para World Archery rankings, in what is a tremendous feat for the country. The youngster recently won two gold medals at the Asian Para Games. In the rankings that was updated on Tuesday, she jumped up two places to become the World No.1 in Women’s compound open section.
Sheetal Devi, who is the world’s first armless archer, appeared in her maiden Para Asian Games in September this year. The girl from Kashmir went on to clinch the gold medal in the Women’s compound event. She also bagged the gold in Mixed team event alongside Rakesh Kumar.
With that, she became the first Indian woman Para Archer to win two gold medals in a single edition of the Para Asian Games. She further added a silver medal in Women’s team event.
Just this week, she was awarded the Best Youth Athlete of the year award at the Asian Paralympic Committee’s award ceremony. The World No.1 ranking now comes as a much bigger reward to her performances this year.
Also Read: India’s armless archer Sheetal Devi adjudged youth athlete of the year
Rakesh Kumar, Sarita improve in rankings
Rakesh Kumar won three gold medals at the Para Asian Championship this year. His performances helped him go up two spots to World No.3 in the rankings. He is now only behind Great Britain’s Natha Macqueen and Italy’s Matteo Bonacina.
In the Women’s category, Sarita made a big leap. She has moved up seven places to World No.6. Sarita won the bronze medal in the Asian Championships.
