Boria Majumdar in Paris
“The moment the semi-final was over and I had won, there was a sense of relief,” said Harvinder Singh, moments after he had won the recurve gold medal in archery at the Paralympics. “The medal was assured, and it was one better than Tokyo. My heart was racing, and wanted to run away to India to my mother and father, wife and child. I wanted to speak to them and celebrate. But my mind was saying to me that the job isn’t done yet. I had come this far and needed to make it count. I did not switch my phone on and just calmed myself down.”
As he was saying this, the sky behind him was all golden. It was God’s way of showing her love for India’s golden boy. With the Eiffel Tower in the background, Harvinder was standing tall. The tricolour had just gone up for him and we had heard the national anthem. The archery curse, if we may call it as such, had finally ended.
What was it like ahead of the last set, I asked him. Up 4-0 and just two points shy of a historic Paralympic gold, what was going through his mind? How was it possible to hit those 10s under intense pressure?
“Pressure toh tha [Pressure was there],” he said. “But I was able to control it to a very large extent and did not let my mind get too far ahead. That’s where the final set was won. You need to reign in your emotions and get the job done. You don’t often get into a gold-medal position in archery and when you do, you can’t leave things to chance.”
Harvinder, for the record, was the first Indian to win a bronze medal in archery in Tokyo. And for the doctoral student in economics, it is a rule never to celebrate a win or a loss in a manner which can be considered excessive. “Khushi ya gham, kuch bhi zyada nahi honi chahiye [Happiness or sadness, neither should be too much],” he told me. “I never celebrate a win too much and nor do I mourn a loss too much. However, I have to tell you that I am feeling very happy today with the gold and this could be an exception!”
Could this be the Neeraj Chopra moment for archery? Could it inspire many back home to take up the sport and could we win expect more medals from archery in 2028?
Harvinder sounded extremely upbeat about India’s chances. “Since winning [a medal] in Tokyo, I get messages from people asking how they can take up archery,” he said. “Now, the messages will be ten times more. I do expect this gold medal to trigger a chain reaction with many wanting to play the sport.”
Finally, what was it like to shoot in front of a packed stadium at Les Invalides? In Tokyo, he had shot in an empty stadium with Covid-19 still raging. This time round, however, there was not one seat empty at the venue.
“I have never shot in front of so many people and I was nervous to start with,” said Harvinder. “If you see my first match, I wasn’t shooting well and was lucky. Once I won that match, things got better and only then did I start to enjoy the atmosphere. There were a few Indian supporters and I could see the tricolour in the stands. It always gets the best out of you.”
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