Paris: India achieved its best ever medal haul in the Paralympics as it went past last edition’s number of podium finishes on the back of a superlative performance by the country’s track and field athletes here on Tuesday.
A late evening rush of medals swelled India’s tally to 20 (3 gold, 7 silver, 10 bronze) to surpass its earlier best haul of 19 medals at the Tokyo Paralympic Games three years ago.
On a red-letter day for Indian para sports, the track and field athletes showcased their might for the second consecutive day at the iconic Stade de France, bagging five medals — two silver and three bronze — as the country ended day six of the quadrennial showpiece at 17th place.
Five gold, eight silver & six bronze at Tokyo
India had won five gold, eight silver and six bronze medals at the Tokyo Paralympics.
India’s javelin throwers continued to set the bar high with Ajeet Singh and world record holder Sundar Singh Gurjar clinching the silver and bronze with throws of 65.62m and 64.96m respectively in the F46 category.
F46 category is for field athletes with moderately affected movement in one or both arms or the absence of limbs.
High jumpers Sharad Kumar and Tokyo Paralympics gold medallist Mariyappan Thangavelu gave it their all before settling for silver and bronze in the T63 finals, with jumps of 1.88m and 1.85m respectively.
T63 is for high jumpers with available movement moderately affected in one leg or the absence of limbs above the knee.
Earlier, world champion sprinter Deepthi Jeevanji ensured another bronze for India in the women’s 400m (T20) event with the 20-year-old clocking 55.82sec to secure a podium finish in her debut Games appearance. She finished behind Yuliia Shuliar (55.16sec) of Ukraine and world record holder Aysel Onder (55.23sec) of Turkey.
Daughter of farm labourers from Kalleda Village in Telangana’s Warangal district, Jeevanji was diagnosed with intellectual impairment after being spotted at a school level athletics meet by one of her teachers.
Growing up, she and her parents were subjected to taunts by natives of her village due to her disability.
However, the same village has been celebrating her ever since she won a gold at last year’s Asian Para Games before breaking the world record at the Para World Championships in May this year to fetch another gold.
The youngster was also assisted by national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand after she began training with her formative coach Nagpuri Ramesh.
The T20 category is meant for athletes who have intellectual impairment.
Lekhara’s campaign ends
However, ace Indian shooter Avani Lekhara missed out on a second medal at the Games as she finished fifth in the final of the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 competition in Chateauroux.
The 22-year-old, paralysed waist-down at 11 years of age owing to a car accident, shot a total of 420.6 across the three stages of kneeling, prone and standing in a world-class eight-woman field.
However, she has lots to celebrate after becoming first Indian woman to win consecutive gold medals at Paralympics following a top finish in the 10m air rifle competition last week.
Germany’s Natascha Hiltrop won the gold with a total of 456.5, Slovakian Veronika Vadovicova claimed silver with 456.1, and China’s Zhang shot 446.0 to bag the bronze.
The SH1 class is designated for athletes with lower-limb impairment for competition in rifle shooting events. Here shooters are able hold their gun without difficulty and shoot from a standing or sitting position (in a wheelchair or chair).
Jadhav ends 5th in shot put
Bhagyashri Jadhav finished fifth in the women’s shot put (F34).
Jadhav, making her second appearance at the Paralympics, produced a throw of 7.28m but it was not enough for a podium finish.
China’s Lijuan Zou won the gold with a season’s best of 9.14m while Poland’s Lucyna Kornobys secured the silver with an effort of 8.33m.
The 39-year-old Indian, who hails from Nanded district in Maharashtra, is an inspiring story of resilience. She slipped into depression after losing the use of her legs due to an accident in 2006.
But she fought back to reclaim her life as a para-athlete with help from friends and family.
Archer Pooja’s campaign ends in quarters
World Para Championship silver medallist Pooja Jatyan beat Yagmur Sengul of Turkey in straight sets to storm into the quarterfinals of recurve women’s open archery competition.
However, the 27-year-old could not sustain the momentum and lost to Tokyo Paralympics bronze-medallist Wu Chunyan of China in the last-eight stage.
It was a particularly painful loss to Chunyan given that Pooja led 4-0 at one stage.
A winner of four Paralympics medals, including a team gold in 2016 Rio Games, the 34-year-old Chinese archer was nowhere in the picture after a disastrous opening set in which she shot twice in the 7-point red ring to aggregate 23 points.
But perhaps pressure got the better of Pooja, who fumbled her chance by allowing Chunyan to make a comeback in the third set, following which the match turned on its head.
