Harvinder, Vijay win doubles men's recurve gold; Pooja, Bhawana secure women's doubles silver

Okazaki: Indian archers brought more laurels as Paralympic champion Harvinder Singh clinched a gold medal alongside Vijay Sundi in the recurve men's doubles, while Pooja and Bhawana secured silver in the recurve women's doubles final at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Multipurpose Square here on Friday.

Harvinder and Vijay defeated China's Zhao Lixue and Yun Duo by 5-1 with a brilliant performance in the final to take the gold. The Indian archers won two sets and tied one to win the final.

Meanwhile, Bhawna and Pooja had a tough time in the recurve women's doubles final against China's Wang Xueqian and Gao Zihan as they lost 0-6. The Indian archers did not had a great show in the final and were easily beaten by the Chinese.

Moreover, the Indian mixed doubles team of Harvinder and Bhawna missed out on a medal in the bronze medal match after losing to Iran. India and Iran were tied at 4-4 at the end of set four, and the two were still locked at 18-18 in the shoot-off; however, Iran won the medal as their arrows were closer to the centre than the Indian archers'.

In the men's recurve doubles, Harvinder and Vijay started with a score of 35 in the first set out of the available in the first four arrows. The Chinese had also hit 35 for the first set to be tied.

The Indians had shot 37 in the second set, while their opponents managed 36 for Harvinder and Vijay to bag the second one and take a 3-1 lead. The Chinese managed to hit 36 in the third set but the Indian archers were extremely precise with their targets and nailed a score of 38 to take the set, the match and the gold medal.

On the contrary, Bhawna and Pooja could not match the Chinese archers in the women's recurve doubles final. The Indians hit 31 in the first four arrows, while the Chinese had scored 38.

Bhawna and Pooja hit 30 in the second set as the Chinese replied with 35, before the Indians managed another low 29 as Gao and Wang nailed 39 to win the match and the gold.

Elsewhere, India's Jehan Madan and Shubham Wadhwa won a bronze medal in the Men's Doubles MD4 Para Table Tennis. The Indian pair won one match and lost three in Group A to finish in fourth and salvage a bronze medal.

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