Deepthi Jeevanji won bronze in the women’s 400m T20 category after winning silver in the men’s high jump T63 and javelin throw F46.
On Tuesday, India surpassed its previous best-ever Paralympic medal haul of 19 with a late medal rush on Day 6. During the Paris Games on Tuesday, the country’s track and field athletes won three gold medals, seven silver medals, and ten bronze medals, making it the first time they have won 20 medals at the Games.
At the Stade de France, India’s track and field athletes won five medals (two silver and three bronze). At the Tokyo Paralympics, the country won five gold, eight silver, and six bronze medals.
Sundar Singh Gurjar won bronze with a throw of 64.96m and Ajeet Singh won silver with a throw of 65.62m. The F46 category is for athletes with moderately affected movement in one or both arms.
As a bronze medalist in the men’s high jump T63 final, Rio Paralympic gold medallist Mariyappan Thangavelu became the first Indian to win three Olympic medals. At Tokyo 2020, Thangavelu won silver. T63 is for high jumpers with moderately impaired movement in one leg or with limbs above the knee missing. Thangavelu jumped 1.85m to win the gold, while Sharad Kumar jumped 1.88m to win silver.
In the women’s 400m T20 event, Deepthi Jeevanji won bronze. She clocked 55.82 seconds. Aysel Onder (55.23sec) of Turkey and Yuliia Shuliar (55.16sec) of Ukraine finished ahead of her. Having been spotted by one of her teachers at a school-level athletics meet, Jeevanji, the daughter of farm laborers in Telangana’s Warangal district, was diagnosed with intellectual impairment.
Her formative coach Nagpuri Ramesh also assisted her after she began training with Pullela Gopichand, the national badminton coach.
The campaign of Avani Lekhara has come to an end
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.
In a world-class field of eight women, the 22-year-old was paralysed waist-down after a car accident at the age of 11.
After winning a top finish in the 10m air rifle competition last week, she became the first Indian woman to win consecutive gold medals at Paralympics.
Natascha Hiltrop won gold with 456.5, Veronika Vadovicova took silver with 456.1, and Zhang took bronze with 446.0.
Those competing in the SH1 class are athletes with lower-limb impairments who can shoot their rifle from a standing or seated 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, threw 7.28m but could not make the podium.
Lijuan Zou of China won the gold with a season’s best of 9.14m, while Lucyna Kornobys of Poland secured the silver with an 8.33m effort.
After losing the use of her legs in a 2006 accident, the 39-year-old Indian, who hails from Nanded district in Maharashtra, fell into depression.
With the help of family and friends, she reclaimed her life as a para-athlete.
The campaign of Archer Pooja comes to an end
Pooja Jatyan of Armenia beat Yagmur Sengul of Turkey in straight sets to reach the quarterfinals of the recurve women’s open archery competition.
In the last eight, the 27-year-old lost to Tokyo Paralympics bronze-medallist Wu Chunyan of China.
Due to Pooja’s 4-0 lead at one point, the loss to Chunyan was particularly painful.
She won four Paralympic medals, including a team gold at the 2016 Rio Games, but was nowhere to be found after shooting twice in the 7-point red ring during the opening set.
However, Pooja fumbled her chance by allowing Chunyan to make a comeback in the third set, which turned the match on its head.
