India performed its best ever at the Paralympics, with a whopping medal tally

Paralympic Games: India surpassed the number of podium finishes from the previous edition of the Paralympics with its greatest-ever medal haul thanks to an outstanding performance by the nation’s track and field competitors here on Tuesday. India’s medal total increased to 20 in the late evening, surpassing its previous record of 19 in the Tokyo Paralympic Games three years before (3 gold, 7 silver, and 10 bronze). Track and field athletes from India demonstrated their might in the renowned Stade de France for the second day in a row on a red-letter day for para sports in India. They won five medals, including two silver and three bronze, and finished the quadrennial spectacle in 17th position.

At the Tokyo Paralympics, India has taken home five gold, eight silver, and six bronze medals.

Ajeet Singh and world record holder Sundar Singh Gurjar won silver and bronze, respectively, in the F46 category, demonstrating how high the bar can be set by Indian javelin throwers. Their throws measured 65.62 meters and 64.96 meters, respectively.

Field athletes in the F46 category have either no limbs or very slightly impaired arm or arm mobility.

In the T63 finals, gold champion Mariyappan Thangavelu and high jumper Sharad Kumar gave it their best but ended up with silver and bronze, respectively, with leaps of 1.88 and 1.85 meters.

T63 is for high jumpers who have no limbs above the knee or whose leg’s range of motion is only slightly reduced. In the women’s 400m (T20) event earlier, world champion sprinter Deepthi Jeevanji secured another bronze for India. The 20-year-old finished on the podium in her first-ever Games participation, timing 55.82 seconds. She came in second behind world record holder Aysel Onder (55.23 seconds) of Turkey and Yuliia Shuliar (55.16 seconds) of Ukraine.

Born into a family of agricultural workers in Kalleda Village, in the Warangal region of Telangana, Jeevanji was diagnosed with intellectual disability after one of her teachers saw her participating in an interschool sports competition.

Because of her condition, she and her parents endured ridicule from the locals in her area as children.

But the town has been celebrating her ever since she broke the world record in the Para World Championships in May of this year to win another gold, and she also won a gold at the Asian Para Games last year.

Once the young player started working with her formative teacher Nagpuri Ramesh, she was also helped by national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand.

The T20 division is designed for athletes with cognitive disabilities.

End of Lekhara’s campaign

Nevertheless, top Indian markswoman Avani Lekhara was unable to secure a second medal at the Games after placing fifth in the Chateauroux women’s 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 final.

In three stages—kneeling, prone, and standing—the 22-year-old, who was rendered paralyzed from the waist down at the age of 11 due to a vehicle accident, fired a total of 420.6 shots in an elite eight-woman field.

She did, however, have plenty to celebrate after placing first in the 10m air rifle category last week, making history as the first Indian woman to win gold medals in successive Paralympic games.

Natascha Hiltrop of Germany took first place with a score of 456.5, followed by Veronika Vadovicova of Slovakia in second place with 456.1, and Zhang of China in third place with 446.0.

Athletes with lower-limb disability are eligible to compete in rifle shooting events under the SH1 class. Here, shooters may fire from a standing or sitting posture (in a wheelchair or chair) with ease while holding their pistol.

Shot put: Jadhav finishes fifth

In the women’s shot put (F34), Bhagyashri Jadhav placed sixth.

Jadhav, competing in her second Paralympic Games, threw a 7.28-meter discus, however it was insufficient for a podium place.

With a season-best performance of 9.14 meters, Lijuan Zou of China won the gold, while Lucyna Kornobys of Poland took home the silver with an 8.33-meter effort.

The 39-year-old Indian, who is from Maharashtra’s Nanded district, is a remarkable example of perseverance. After an accident in 2006 left her without use of her legs, she fell into sadness.

But with support from friends and family, she battled back to take back her life as a para-athlete.

Quarts of Archer Pooja’s campaign are up

Pooja Jatyan, the silver medalist from the World Para Championship, easily defeated Yagmur Sengul of Turkey in straight sets to get to the recurve women’s open archery quarterfinals.

But the 27-year-old could not maintain the pace and succumbed in the last eight round to Chinese bronze medalist Wu Chunyan from the Tokyo Paralympics.

Chunyan’s defeat was especially devastating since at one point Pooja had a 4-0 lead.

The 34-year-old Chinese archer, who has won four Paralympic medals—including a gold team medal at the 2016 Rio Games—was completely out of the picture after a terrible first set in which she scored 23 points by hitting two shots in the 7-point red ring.

However, it’s possible that pressure got the better of Pooja, as she blew her opportunity and allowed Chunyan to rally in the third set, which turned the match around.