India’s medal tally rose to 20, including 3 gold, 7 silver and 10 bronze, breaking the previous record of 19 medals set at the Tokyo Paralympic Games three years ago.
It was a remarkable day for Indian para sports as the country bagged five medals, taking the total medal tally to 20 and India moved to 17th position by the end of the sixth day of the quadrennial event. This impressive performance included two silver medals and three bronze medals in track and field events.
India won five gold, eight silver and six bronze medals at the Tokyo Paralympics. This year javelin throwers won the most medals. ajeet singh and world record holder Sunder Singh Gurjar In the F46 category, they won silver and bronze medals with throws of 65.62m and 64.96m respectively. The F46 category is for field athletes who have mild or no movement in one or both arms or missing limbs.
High jumpers Sharad Kumar and Tokyo Paralympics gold medallist Mariyappan Thangavelu performed commendably, winning silver and bronze medals with jumps of 1.88m and 1.85m in the T63 final. The T63 category is for high jumpers who have mild to moderate movement in one leg or loss of limbs above the knee.
World champion sprinter Deepti Jeevanji added to India’s medal tally by winning a bronze medal in the women’s 400m (T20) event. The 20-year-old clocked 55.82 seconds to finish behind Yuliya Shuliyar of Ukraine (55.16 seconds) and world record holder Aysel Onder of Turkey (55.23 seconds). This was Jeevanji’s first appearance at the Paralympic Games.
The daughter of a farm labourer from Kalleda village in Telangana’s Warangal district, Jeevanji was discovered to be suffering from intellectual disability by a teacher at a school athletics meet. Despite facing social challenges due to her disability, she achieved significant successes, including a gold medal at last year’s Asian Para Games and a world record at the Para World Championships in May.
The T20 category is for players with intellectual disabilities. Jeevanji benefited from the guidance of national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand after starting training with his initial coach Nagpuri Ramesh.
Lekhara’s campaign ends
Shooter Avani Lekhara missed out on another medal at the Games, finishing fifth in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 event at Chateauroux. 22-year-old Avani Lekhara, who has been paralysed from the waist down since the age of 11 due to a car accident, scored a total of 420.6 points in the three stages of kneeling, lying down and standing in a highly competitive field of eight women.
Despite missing out on another medal, Lekhara has reason to celebrate. She recently made history by becoming the first Indian woman to win consecutive gold medals at the Paralympics, after topping the 10m air rifle event last week.
In the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 event, Germany’s Natascha Hiltrop won the gold medal with a total score of 456.5. Slovakian shooter Veronika Vadovicova won the silver medal with a score of 456.1, while China’s Zhang won the bronze medal with a score of 446.0.
The SH1 class is for athletes with lower limb disabilities competing in rifle shooting events. These athletes can hold their guns without difficulty and can shoot from both standing or sitting positions using a wheelchair or chair.
Jadhav finished fifth in shot put
Bhagyashree Jadhav finished fifth in the women’s shot put (F34) event at the Paralympic Games. Competing in her second Paralympic Games, Jadhav recorded a throw of 7.28m.
Despite her effort, it was not enough for a podium finish.
China’s Lijuan Zhou won the gold with a season’s best of 9.14 metres, while Poland’s Lucina Kornobis took the silver with 8.33 metres.
The story of 39-year-old Jadhav, who hails from Nanded district of Maharashtra, is inspiring. After an accident in 2006 left her unable to use her legs, which led her into depression. With the support of friends and family, she made a remarkable turnaround to become a para-athlete.
Archer Pooja’s campaign ended in the quarter-finals
Archer Pooja Jatyan came back from a two-set lead to lose 4-6 to heavyweight Wu Chunyan of China in the women’s recurve open quarterfinals.
The 34-year-old Chinese archer, winner of four Paralympic medals including team gold at the 2016 Rio Games, was nowhere to be seen after a horrific opening set where she shot into the 7-point red ring twice and scored a total of 23 points.
Pooja, a former World Para Championship silver medallist, made a great start, losing just two points to win the first set by a margin of five points.
The 27-year-old Gurugram-born archer shot a perfect 10 in her final arrow to win the second set 25-24 and take a 4-0 lead.
Needing only one set to reach her maiden semi-final, Pooja missed a 7 point in the final arrow of the third set, allowing the Chinese player to reduce the gap to 2-4 and win the third set 28-27.
Pooja slowly started to falter under pressure and could score just 24 points in the fourth set.
Wu tied the score at 4–4, and scored a perfect 10 on the final arrow to win the deciding set 27–24.
