Vaishno Devi sports complex’s archers bag Para Archery World Ranking Tournament medals

Para-archers Rakesh Kumar and Sheetal Devi trained and groomed at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Sports Complex, Katra, brought laurels to the country by winning five medals at Para Archery World Ranking Tournament held at Czech Republic

.Rakesh and Sheetal Devi put up a good fight in a high-intensity summit clash of the compound open mixed team against Italy, bagging the gold. The former also clinched gold in the compound men’s open doubles category.

Sheetal, meanwhile, got her hands on a silver in the compound women’s open and bronze in the compound women’s doubles. The Indian team secured nine medals, of which five medals were contributed by the Shrine archers.

Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha, who is also the chairperson of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, congratulated both the sportspersons for their performance, tweeting: “The entire nation is proud of their achievement and their feat will inspire millions of our youth.”

Shrine Board member and chairperson of the governing council of Shrine Board’s Sports Complex Ashok Bhan as well as Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board chief executive Anshul Garg also extended his congratulations to the winning duo.

The archers at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board’s Sports Complex are trained under the guidance of coaches Kuldeep Vedwan and Abhilasha Chaudhary.

Para-archer Rakesh Kumar is a resident of Katra, while Sheetal hails from Kishtwar. The latter has, however, received training at the Shrine Board’s Sports Complex for the last five years.

Besides archery, Shrine Board’s Sports Complex has produced national and international sportspersons in various sporting disciplines including athletics, judo, shooting, badminton among others.