It was a prolific Day 2 for India at the 2024 Paris Paralympics as four medals were won in shooting and athletics on Friday.
In the women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 event, Avani Lekhara defended her title to win gold while Mona Agarwal rounded off the podium with bronze. There was a third medal in shooting for India as Manish Narwal took silver in the men’s 10m air pistol SH1 event.
Later on, Preethi Pal finished in third place in the women’s 100m T35 event to win bronze.
Lekhara was in fine form throughout the day as she finished second in the qualification round with a score of 625.8. Agarwal, in her debut Paralympics, qualified fifth with a score of 623.1.
In the final, Lekhara kept pace with her closest competitor and former Paralympic champion Lee Yunri of South Korea. The two were level on points after 12 shots, but Agarwal soon made a chase for gold and shot to the top after 20 shots.
However, in the final elimination to decide the bronze medal, Agarwal wasn’t able to maintain her form and slipped to third. In the end, Lekhara broke her own Paralympic record that she set during Tokyo 2020 and won gold with a score of 249.7.
Narwal, who had won gold in the 50m pistol mixed team event at Tokyo 2020, won silver in the 10m air pistol event. The Indian was in the lead for a couple of series in the final but lost his momentum with a couple of low scores.
However, he had done enough to secure a silver medal, India’s first in Paris.
Pal, who had won bronze at the 2024 World Para Championships earlier in May this year, was a favourite to stand on the podium. Although the Indian didn’t get off to a good start and was in fourth place, she recovered and found her pace at the half-way mark to pip her Iraqi competitor Fatimah Suwaed for the bronze medal.
Meanwhile, Sakshi Kasana and Karamjyoti Dalal both missed out on a medal in the women’s discus throw T55 event, finishing eighth and ninth respectively. Both Kasana and Dalal threw their season’s bests.
In the men’s shot put F37 event, Manu finished sixth with a best throw of 13.86m.
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