Harvinder Singh created history by winning a gold medal at the Paralympics. The country’s athletes continued their best form at the Games and exceeded expectations after world champion shot-putter Sachin Sarjerao won a record-breaking silver medal. 33-year-old Harvinder, who became the first Indian to win an archery medal at the Games with a bronze medal in Tokyo three years ago, improved the colour of his medal in a stunning performance of five consecutive wins.
He created history for himself and the country by defeating Poland’s Lukas Ciszek 6-0 in a one-sided final. This archer from Haryana had lost both his legs in childhood as the treatment for dengue had adversely affected him.
Earlier, the 34-year-old threw 16.32m in her second attempt in the F46 category final to break her own Asian record of 16.30m, which she had set while winning the gold medal at the World Para-Athletics Championships in Japan in May.
His performance took India’s medal tally to 22 and the nation is currently placed 15th in the overall table with four gold, eight silver and 10 bronze medals.
Canada’s Greg Stewart retained his gold medal from the Tokyo Paralympics with 16.38m, while Croatia’s Luka Bachovic won the bronze with 16.27m.
The player’s silver medal was also India’s 11th medal in track-and-field, while in Tokyo, India had won one gold, five silver and two bronze medals.
Late Tuesday night, Indians won silver and bronze medals in men’s high jump T63 and javelin throw F46, while Deepti Jeevanji won bronze in the women’s 400m T20 category in what was India’s best day at the Games.
Sharad Kumar and Mariyappan Thangavelu won silver and bronze respectively in the men’s high jump T63, while Ajeet Singh and Sundar Singh Gurjar finished second and third in the javelin throw F46 final.
The F46 classification is for athletes with arm weakness, impaired muscle strength or impaired passive range of motion in the arms, and athletes compete standing.
Khilari, who hails from a farmer family of Kargani village in Sangli district of Maharashtra, met with an accident in his childhood. The injury caused gangrene in the skin of his elbow and atrophy of the muscles. His hand could not be cured even after several surgeries. His mother also died in his childhood.
Talking about his performance on Wednesday, the player said, “I wanted to win the gold medal but it didn’t happen. This is my best distance but I am not satisfied. I think I could have done better. It was not my day.”
Simran reached 100m semi-final
World champion sprinter Simran entered the semi-finals of the 100m (T12) event with a season’s best time of 12.17 seconds. The sprinter was visually impaired as an infant due to being born prematurely.
After Wednesday’s heats, she lay second overall, and in the 16-man event, behind Paralympic champion and world record holder Omara Durand of Cuba, who also ran a season’s best time of 11.87 seconds.
The semi-finals will take place on Thursday.
Tokyo silver medallist Bhavina out
India’s challenge in the women’s singles table tennis competition ended after Tokyo edition silver medallist Bhavinaben Patel lost 3-1 to China’s Ying Zhou in the Class 4 quarterfinals.
Bhavinaben, who became India’s first medallist in the sport by winning a silver at the Tokyo Paralympics, gave a tough fight in the first two games and won the third game as well but eventually lost 12-14, 9-11, 11-8, 6-11 to her Chinese opponent.
Earlier, another Class 3 women’s singles player Sonalben Patel lost to Croatia’s Andela Mujinic Vincetic in the round of 16.
Bhavinaben was diagnosed with polio when she was one year old.
She competes in Class 4 which is for wheelchair-bound athletes with functional arms and hands.
No medal in shooting
In Chateauroux, Indian shooters Nihal Singh and Rudransh Khandelwal failed to make it to the final of the mixed 50m pistol (SH1) event.
Nihal, the 2023 World Championship bronze medallist, finished 19th. He scored a total of 522 points in six series.
Participating in his first Paralympics, 17-year-old Rudransh, who lost his left leg in an accident at the age of just eight, competed in the Paralympic Games by scoring 517 points in the qualification round and finishing 22nd.
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