India in Rio Paralympics 2016, 10th September schedule: List of events & Indian athletes on Day 3 of the Games

Archery

Event: Women's Individual Recurve- Ranking Round

Athlete: Pooja

Time: 5:30pm IST

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Shooting

Event: Mixed 10m Air Rifle SH1 Qualifications

Athlete: Naresh Kumar Sharma

Time: 6pm IST

Event: Mixed 10m Air Rifle SH1 Finals

Time: 8:15pm

Date	Time	Sport	Event	Athlete
Sept 10	17:30	Archery	Women's Individual Recurve- Ranking Round	Pooja
Sept 10	18:00	Shooting	Mixed 10m Air Rifle SH1 Qualifications	Naresh Kumar Sharma
Sept 10	20:15	Shooting	Mixed 10m Air Rifle SH1 Finals

After failing to qualify for the finals, India’s only para-swimmer Suyash Narayan Jadhav made the country proud by finishing fifth in his heat. Now it is the turn of India’s first archer at the Paralympics, Pooja to give the performance of her life and finish well.

The daughter of a sweeper, Pooja’s journey has certainly been a long and perilous one. A few weeks back she became the victim to another setback after the IPC announced that they would be unable to accommodate her coach to accompany her to Rio. Without her coach, Sanjay Suhag, Pooja is reportedly unable to string her own bow and mount her equipment prior to shooting the target. We hope this does not affect her performance tomorrow.

Hailing from Rohtak in Haryana, she was diagnosed with Poliomyelitis at a young age. Despite this, she retained an interest in archery although it was obviously difficult to find suitable infrastructure to give shape to her dreams. Coming from a humble economic background, Pooja was unable to afford any sort of world class training in Rohtak.

Her coach helped her out initially with basic equipment and she made the most of this opportunity. She won her first major medal at the National Para Archery Tournament in Rohtak and followed it up with a 5^th place finish at the World ranking Tournament held in the Czech Republic. The latter performance earned her a qualification into the ongoing Paralympics.

Naresh Kumar Sharma is, of course, the veteran of the contingent with this edition of the Games being his fifth appearance at the Paralympics. The 42-year old shooter is a former Arjuna Awardee. In his previous event, he failed to make a mark after he finished 21st by registering a score of 493.1. We definitely hope his performance picks up in his second event He is one of the two Indians playing on this day.