Paris Paralympics 2024: India record best-ever medal haul as Sharad, Ajeet win para-athletics silver

India’s athletes clinched five more medals at the ongoing Paris Paralympics on Tuesday, taking the country’s overall medals tally to 20. This is India’s best-ever performance at an edition of the Paralympics, surpassing the total of 19 medals that the country had won in Tokyo three years back.

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Deepthi Jeevanji won bronze in women’s 400m T20 race, whereas high jumpers Sharad Kumar and Mariyappan Thangavelu clinched silver and bronze respectively. In men’s javelin throw, Ajeet Singh and Sundar Singh Gurjar impressed by winning silver and bronze.

As India finds itself 19th in the overall medals tally, let’s take a look at some top moments from Tuesday:

Deepthi Jeevanji wins bronze

India’s para-athletes’ impressive performances on the big stage continued on Tuesday, as Deepthi Jeevanji won bronze in the women’s 400m T20 race . She did so with a timing of 55.82 seconds, behind Turkey’s Aysel Onder (55.23s) and Ukraine’s Yuliia Shuliar (55.16s), who won silver and gold respectively.

Deepthi thus became the second track athlete to win a medal at the Paris Paralympics after Preethi Pal had won two bronze medals earlier. In the final on Tuesday, Deepthi was in second place for a large part of the final third, and it was only towards the very end when her Turkish competitor overtook Deepthi.

Sharad wins silver, bronze for Thangavelu

Sharad Kumar and Mariyappan Thangavelu performed up to expectations , albeit both missing out on gold. In the men’s high jump T63 final, Sharad achieved a height of 1.88m, whereas Thangavelu managed 1.85m. The competition was so fierce, so much so that Shailesh Kumar, the third Indian in the fray, endured a fourth-place finish with a jump of 1.85m.

USA’s Ezra Frech won gold with a jump of 1.94m to set a new Paralympic record. For Sharad, this was a second Paralympic medal after winning bronze in Tokyo. On the other hand, Mariyappan won his third consecutive medal at Paralympics, after gold in Rio (2016) and silver in Tokyo (2021).

Ajeet, Sundar win javelin medals

Indian fans had more reasons to celebrate on Tuesday as Ajeet Singh and Sundar Singh Gurjar added a silver and bronze to the country’s medal tally. The duo won silver and bronze respectively in men’s javelin throw F46 final.

While Ajeet, who finished eighth in Tokyo three years back, won silver with a throw of 65.62m, Gurjar threw a season-best of 64.96m to win bronze.

No medal for Avani Lekhara

Avani Lekhara, the shooter who had won gold in women’s 10m rifle standing, ended her Paris Games campaign with just that one medal to her name. A few days ago, Lekhara had failed to qualify for the mixed 10m air rifle prone, and on Tuesday, she endured a fifth-place finish in the women’s 50m rifle 3 Positions SH1 final. Lekhara finished with a score of 420.6 points.

Avani led the final for a short while but dropped to sixth place towards the end of the prone stage. Avani did quite well during the standing stage but endured a score of 8.3 which handed her a setback. That was the lowest shot of the competition for Avani and she failed to find a way back from there.

Bhagyashri Jadhav misses podium

Bhagyashri Jadhav missed out on a finish in the women’s shot put F34 final. Bhagyashree began with an attempt of 7.05m and followed it up with an attempt of 7.23m. However, in her next two attempts, she slipped up with her scores being below the 7m mark.

Bhagyasree finished the competition with a final throw of 7.28m, which was her best across all six attempts, but it was not enough to win a medal.