Paralympics 2024: Harvinder and Dharambir add to India's gold tally

Harvinder Singh became the first Indian archer to strike gold at the Paralympics before club thrower Dharambir also secured a top finish with a record-shattering throw as the country's athletes continued to surpass expectations on yet another rewarding day at the quadrennial showpiece here.

World champion shot-putter Sachin Sarjerao Khilari and another club thrower Pranav Soorma's silver-winning performances were a major highlight too on a terrific Wednesday for India.

Their performance took India's medal haul to 24 and the nation is currently placed 13th in the overall standings with five gold, nine silver and 10 bronze medals. It is India's best ever performance at the event and will only get better with three more days of competition left.

 

The 33-year-old Harvinder, who became the first Indian to win an archery medal at the Games with a bronze three years ago in Tokyo, bettered the colour of his medal in a superlative performance of five consecutive wins.

He defeated Poland's Lukasz Ciszek 6-0 in a one-sided final to script history for himself and the country.

The Haryana-archer has impairment in his legs owing to a dengue treatment that adversely affected him when he was just a toddler.

Icing on the cake was Dharambir's Asian record 34.92m throw that helped him stay on top from start to finish, followed by Soorma (34.59m) in the F51 club throw finals.

The F51 club throw event is for athletes who have movement affected to a high degree in the trunk, legs and hands. All participants compete while seated and rely on their shoulders and arms to generate power.

Earlier, the 34-year-old Khilari pulled off a 16.32m throw in his second attempt of the F46 category final to better his own Asian record of 16.30m which he set in May while winning gold in the World Para-Athletics Championships in Japan.

Greg Stewart of Canada defended his Tokyo Paralympics gold with a throw of 16.38m, while Luka Bakovic of Croatia took the bronze with 16.27m.

Khilari's silver was also India's 11th medal from track-and-field, the Tokyo haul of one gold, five silver and two bronze medals long overhauled.

Late on Tuesday night, Indians won silver and bronze in both men's high jump T63 and javelin throw F46 after Deepthi Jeevanji's bronze in the women's 400m T20 category in 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 took the second and third sports in the javelin throw F46 final.

F46 classification is for athletes with arm deficiency, impaired muscle power or impaired passive range of movement in arms, with athletes competing in a standing position.

Hailing from a farming family at Karagani village in Maharashtra's Sangli district, Khilari met with an accident during his childhood. The injury resulted in gangrene of the skin on his elbow and muscle atrophy. Even after several surgeries, his arm never recovered. He also lost his mother when he was young.

"I had wanted to win the gold medal, but it did not happen. It's my best distance but I am not satisfied. I feel I could have done better. It was not my day," Khilari said about his performance on Wednesday.

Simran enters 100m semis

World champion sprinter Simran entered the semifinals of the 100m (T12) event with a season's best timing of 12.17sec. The runner was visually impaired as an infant after being born prematurely.

After the heat race of Wednesday, she was ranked second overall, finishing behind reigning Paralympic champion and world record holder Omara Durand of Cuba, who also ran a season's best of 11.87s, in the 16-member field.

The semifinal will take place on Thursday.

Tokyo silver-medallist Bhavina ousted

India's challenge in the women's singles table tennis competition after Tokyo edition's silver-medallist Bhavinaben Patel lost to China's Ying Zhou 3-1 in the class 4 quarterfinal.

Bhavinaben, who became India's first-ever medal winner in the sport with her silver in the Tokyo Paralympics, fought hard in the first two games and even won the third but eventually lost to her Chinese rival 12-14, 9-11, 11-8, 6-11.

Earlier, the other women's singles player in class 3, Sonalben Patel lost to Croatia's Andela Muzinic Vincetic in the round of 16.

Bhavinaben was diagnosed with polio when she was one-year old.

She competes in class 4 which is meant for wheel-chair bound athletes with functional arms and hands.

No medals in shooting

In Chateauroux, Indian shooters Nihal Singh and Rudransh Khandelwal failed to make the final of mixed 50m pistol (SH1) competition.

Nihal, the 2023 world championship bronze medallist, finished 19th. He had an aggregate score of 522 across six series.

Competing in his maiden Paralympics, 17-year-old Rudransh, who lost his left leg in a freak mishap when he was just eight-years-old, scored 517 to sign off in the 22nd spot in the qualification round.