India achieves new high in Paralympics, surpasses Tokyo’s medal count

INDIA has set a new record for its best-ever performance at the Paralympics, surpassing the number of medals won in the last edition, driven by strong performances from the country’s track and field athletes on Tuesday.

India's medal tally reached 20, including 3 gold, 7 silver, and 10 bronze, surpassing the previous best of 19 medals at the Tokyo Paralympic Games three years ago.

In a significant day for Indian para sports, track and field athletes won five medals—two silver and three bronze—at the Stade de France, bringing India to 17th place on day six of the event.

India had won five gold, eight silver, and six bronze medals at the Tokyo Paralympics.

In javelin, Ajeet Singh and world record holder Sundar Singh Gurjar secured silver and bronze with throws of 65.62m and 64.96m, respectively, in the F46 category, which is for athletes with moderately affected movement in one or both arms or missing limbs.

High jumpers Sharad Kumar and Tokyo Paralympics gold medallist Mariyappan Thangavelu claimed silver and bronze in the T63 finals, with jumps of 1.88m and 1.85m, respectively. The T63 category is for athletes with movement moderately affected in one leg or missing limbs above the knee.

World champion sprinter Deepthi Jeevanji added to India’s tally with a bronze in the women’s 400m (T20) event, finishing her debut Games with a time of 55.82 seconds. She placed behind Ukraine’s Yuliia Shuliar (55.16 sec) and Turkey’s world record holder Aysel Onder (55.23 sec). Jeevanji, from Kalleda Village in Telangana, was diagnosed with an intellectual impairment and was discovered at a school-level athletics meet. Despite early challenges, she has won a gold medal at the Asian Para Games and broke the world record at the Para World Championships earlier this year.

The T20 category is designated for athletes with intellectual impairment.

In another event, Indian shooter Avani Lekhara, who previously won gold in the 10m air rifle, missed out on a second medal, finishing fifth in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 competition. Lekhara, who was paralysed waist-down at age 11 after a car accident, shot a total of 420.6 across the three stages. Germany’s Natascha Hiltrop won gold, while Slovakia’s Veronika Vadovicova and China’s Zhang secured silver and bronze, respectively.

The SH1 class is for athletes with lower-limb impairments who can hold their gun and shoot from a standing or sitting position.

Bhagyashri Jadhav finished fifth in the women’s shot put (F34), with a throw of 7.28m. China’s Lijuan Zou took the gold with a season-best of 9.14m, and Poland’s Lucyna Kornobys secured silver with an effort of 8.33m.

In archery, Pooja Jatyan reached the quarterfinals in the recurve women’s open competition after defeating Yagmur Sengul of Turkey in straight sets. However, she lost to China’s Wu Chunyan in the quarterfinals after initially leading 4-0. Chunyan, a winner of four Paralympic medals, including a team gold at the 2016 Rio Games, staged a comeback to win the match.

(With inputs from PTI)