KOLKATA: ‘Sheetal and I were friends off the field, but once we found the target and took aim…’Three days after dominating the World Archery Para Series and defeating the opposition Sheetal Devi For a personal compound in Bangkok, Payal Nag trailed off as she described the moment. “We play with a fierce competitive mentality,” she told TOI on Tuesday.Push boundaries with our YouTube channel. Subscribe now!The 18-year-old had earlier beaten Sheetal to claim gold at the National Paralympic Games in January 2025 and pushed her limits to her limits at the India Paralympic Games in Kelo and earlier this year at the National Championships, where she won a silver and a bronze.At the competition in Thailand, Payal partnered with Sheetal in the team event and the girls showed exceptional determination and skill to win the women’s gold medal on Friday. Eight-year-old Payal, the daughter of a daily wage earner, was playing with her younger brother when she stepped on an exposed electric wire in a puddle at a nearby construction site. The Level 3 girl’s injuries were so serious that doctors had no choice but to amputate all her limbs to save her life.Unable to take care of a quadruple amputee, her parents Bijay and Janata, on the advice of the then district collector of Bolangir, Odisha, sent Payal to an orphanage in their hometown – Parbati Giri Bal Niketan. Relatives and neighbors had other suggestions for putting her out of her misery quickly — and ending her life. “She won’t be able to eat or walk and it would be best to give her some poison,” they said.Bijay and Janata are made of more serious stuff. Today, just ten years after the accident, things have changed dramatically for their daughter – Payal is the only limbless archer to compete on the international stage. “I was very young when people made these comments, but I remember it clearly. It was hard, but now when I think back on those words, I feel a mixture of emotions – painful and relieved,” Payal revealed.“I’m grateful to those who spoke against me because it was because of their words that I was able to have the courage to keep going and reach such great heights.”Payal is grateful to her coach Vidwan, who fell in love with art in an orphanage and was attracted to the drawings of girls. Vedwan came across the painting posted on ‘X’ and took her to the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board Sports Complex in Jammu in 2023 to start a new chapter in her life.Vidhwan developed a custom bow for her with the same release mechanism as the one he had designed for Sheetal. Payal can lift a special bow using a prosthetic leg equipped with a steel device and a chest release mechanism. The arrows have to be loaded by someone else, in Payal’s case, her 20-year-old sister Barsa, who lives with her in Jammu. “I knew nothing about archery and it took me two years to master the skill,” she explains.There is no turning back for the archer and he is now focused on winning a gold medal for India. Asian Games and the Paralympics. “My parents are very happy now. They asked me to come back home to Odisha but I have decided not to go for now. That is because I want to win another international medal. Since I have specific training requirements to fulfill, I am staying in Jammu now. I just want to go out and win again,” Payal claimed.
