CHENNAI: Sheetal in English translates to ‘cool’, ‘calm’ and even ‘peaceful’. Employing the bow with her leg and string pulled by mouth, she is all of the above while releasing the arrow. Sheetal Devi doesn’t have hands to pull and shoot but compensates with other limbs and whatever means she can to pursue her passion — archery.
The para-archer who has broken quite a few glass-ceilings in her short but astonishingly successful career set another gold standard on Thursday. She became the first para-archer in the country to secure a place in the junior able-bodied India team for the Asia Cup Stage 3 to be held in Jeddah next month.
Any player would have been satisfied with a para-world archery championships gold. But Sheetal has not stopped with para-Olympic and para-World Championships medals. Because of her exceptional talent, she was adamant on competing with able-bodied archers. She shifted her base from Katra in Jammu to Patiala and started training with renowned coach Gaurav Sharma. She was very clear — she wanted to model herself with her hero Oznur Cure Girdi of Turkey, who also competes with able-bodied archers.
“I didn’t make it at first, but I kept going, learning from every setback. Today, that dream is one step closer,” she wrote on social media. Sharma later gave an insight to her resolve and resilience. She competed alongside 60 archers over four days.
“She was coming back from a month’s break and we wanted to take part in some competition,” said the coach. “We did not think beyond that. All she wanted was to perform well. She worked hard and her qualification is a result of it.”