Sarita Kumari lost to top seed Oznur Cure Girdi of Korea while Sheetal Devi succumbed to Tokyo Paralympic silver medalist Mariana Zuniga of Chile.

Paris: India suffered one of its biggest shocks in archery at the Paris Paralympics 2024 when Sarita Kumari and Sheetal Devi pulled out of the compound women's open group on Saturday. Sarita's brilliant run ended in the quarterfinals, while armless wonder Sheetal exited in the last-16 round.

Faridabad's Sarita, who qualified as the ninth seed, dominated the first and second rounds before top seed Oznur Kyure Girdi of Korea halted her dream in the last eight. Oznur, who broke the world record to top the qualifier with 704 out of a maximum score of 720, hit three perfect 10s at the other end to take a healthy five-point lead.

Sarita took the third end and equalized with Oznur's perfect fourth end of 30, but the Turkish archer maintained a four-wicket lead after a strong opening and wrapped it up with 29 runs in the fifth end. Sheetal, who shoots arrows with her toes, struck at the other end, where she hit a 7-point red ring to defeat Tokyo silver medalist Mariana Zuniga of Chile 137-138 in the pre-quarters.

All eyes were on Asian Para Games double gold medalist Sheetal, who also broke the previous world record of 698 shooting 703 to earn a last-16 bye. Sheetal got off to a positive start as she hit two X's and dropped a point to win the opening set 29-28.

But her 7 points from the second arrow gave the veteran Chilean archer a much-needed opening as she won the second end 27-26 to tie the game (55-all). The next eight arrows were a neck-and-neck affair for the two, before Mariana shot a 9 in the final arrow to overtake Sheetal as Paralympic debutant Sheetal slipped to the 8-ring by one point.

On a day second seed Sheetal had to make an early exit, ninth seed Sarita dominated Italy's Eleonora Sarti 141-135 in a one-sided pre-quarters battle. Ninth-seeded Sarita, who won the team silver medal at last year's Asian Para Games, took a four-point lead in the first leg and dropped just one point.

There was no looking back as she extended the lead to five points at the other end where she hit an X (near the centre). Her top-ranked Italian rival pulled two 10s and took the third end, but Sarita maintained control and sealed the issue with two solid ends.

Sarita earlier knocked out Malaysia's Noor Jannaton Abdul Jalil 138-124 in the first round. In the open class, archers shoot from a seated position 50 meters away at an 80 cm five-ring target made of 10-6 point bands.