The Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur hailed the historic bronze of archer Harvinder Singh at the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics on Friday.
The Indian defeated South Korea's Min Su Kim by 6-5 in a shoot-off as both archers shared the spoils in the five sets to find a podium finish at the Yumenoshima Final Field.
"Great finish Harvinder @ArcherHarvinder! A very memorable match! #IND defeats #KOR 6-5 India's 1st ever #Paralympics medal in Archery," Anurag Thakur tweeted.
Deepa Malik, President of the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) also congratulated Harvinder on winning bronze. "India's first ever medal in Archery at the Olympics/Paralympics! What a performance it's been!Congratulations to @ArcherHarvinder on bringing home the #Bronze Medal!Also takes our overall medal tally to 13 #Praise4Para," she tweeted.
This is India's first medal in archery at the Games. Harvinder Singh was off to a brilliant start as he aimed 10, 7, 9 in comparison to 9, 6, 9 of Kim to clinch the first set. The South Korean archer came back brilliantly in the match as he scored 29 to clinch the second essay.
The momentum was again shifted towards Harvinder as he clinched the third set by 28-25. Both archers shared the spoils in the fourth set, as the match went into the decider.
In the fifth set, Min Su Kim again showed his class to clinch the decider by 27-26 to force the shoot-off. Playing his 3rd shoot off of the Tokyo Paralympics, Harvinder prevailed in a thriller as he aimed perfect 10 to find the podium finish. Going first, the Korean aimed an 8. Earlier, United States of America's (USA) Kevin Mather defeated Harvinder by 6-4 in the semi-final.
( With inputs from ANI )
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