Sheetal Devi was trailing 55-59 in the final of the compound individual at the Asian Para Games in Japan when she hit six consecutive tens, four of them inner tens. She won 142-139 against Singapore’s Alim Nur Syahidah, the archer who finished second to her in the final at Hangzhou, and took her fourth Asian Para Games gold.It was her second gold of Thursday. Earlier in the day, Devi, the 19-year-old Jammu and Kashmir archer and Paris Paralympics bronze medallist, had won the compound mixed title with Toman Kumar Taram. The day before, she and Payal Nag had lost the women’s doubles final. She had won the doubles silver at Hangzhou and wanted the title this time. After the loss, she spoke to her coach Gaurav Sharma and spent time with her mother Shakti Devi, who is travelling with her in Japan.“Kal mata rani ki kripa se silver aya tha aur aaj do gold aye hain (Yesterday, with Mata Rani’s blessings, the silver came and today two gold medals have come). We work hard for this for the whole year and the results come on such days. Coming into this Asian Para Games, people had expectations from me and yes, there was pressure also but I am glad that I could win the medals as per the expectations,” Devi told The Indian Express in an audio message from Japan.A world record, and the windEarlier this week, the world number one shot 704/720 in the women’s individual compound qualification, equalling the world record Turkey’s Oznur Cure set at the Paris Paralympics. With her mixed team partner’s 698/720, it gave India a new mixed team world record. On the way to the final she also broke the individual match world record, held by Britain’s Jessica Stretton since the 2019 World Para Archery Championships, with a 149 in her 149-134 win over Hong Kong’s Chan Yuen Wah in the pre-quarters. She then beat the home favourite, Shinohara Aya, in the semi-finals.ALSO READ | Former CoBRA commando strikes gold, 4 yrs after losing foot in anti-Maoist op“It was windy early in the morning during the mixed team final too, and later when the individual final happened. The wind was flowing at 3 o’clock direction. When Sheetal shot 26 in the second set, we had a talk that she should not hold the arrow too much and focus on her technique and aim off towards 9 o’clock to counter the wind. But then winds were crossing too. So she also had to readjust. Sheetal had the game to make a comeback and she showed that,” says national coach Gaurav Sharma.Across qualification and the knockouts, Devi shot 102 tens, 55 of them inner tens. In the knockouts she shot only two eights, one of them in the final. Her coach says she trains for the inner tens. “Cure shot 29 inner tens as compared to Sheetal’s 32 inner tens during the score of 704. During the practice sessions, we have some specialist sessions for shoot-outs, hitting a single shot and inner ten. The aim is to train the mind as well as the technique so that when we need an inner ten in crunch situations, in the qualification as well as in the sets, they come, and come in succession. That’s what we saw today in the final too,” he adds.Story continues below this adAim for the LA OlympicsSince last year, Devi has also been competing in able-bodied events. In the trials for the Junior Asia Cup, later cancelled, she shot 2103 out of 2160, and in the second phase she won six of her 11 round-robin matches. At Patiala she trains with Parneet Kaur, the 2023 World Championships women’s team gold medallist, and Sangampreet Singh Bisla, the 2021 World University Games champion.“We had been making sure that Sheetal competes with able-bodied quality archers during practice. Her belief has always been to think like an able-bodied archer. Training as well as competing in trials as well as NRT competitions reinforces that belief,” says Sharma.With compound mixed team archery making its debut at the LA Olympics, the coaches have a plan. They have worked on her grip and core strength, and changed her back and neck positions to reduce the stress on her back. She knows she has to compete in both para and able-bodied competitions in the next year.“My message to her after every match is har jeet se sikhna aur har haar se bhi sikhna hai (Learn from every win and learn from every loss),” Sharma says.