The Indian delegation ended their campaign at the Tokyo Paralympic Games 2020 by breaking India’s past medal tally records.
India brought the largest contingent of para-athletes to the Games, with 54 individuals competing in as many as nine sports. Badminton and Taekwondo, both of which were contested by India, made their debuts in Tokyo. Since its first appearance at the Paralympics in 1968 until the 2016 event in Rio, India had won a total of 12 medals. The country has already surpassed that mark by earning seven medals at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo.
India placed 24th overall out of 162 countries in the medal tally, with 19 medals, and 20th altogether in the medal count.
Avani Lekhara in Women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1, Pramod Bhagat in Men’s singles SL3 badminton, Krishna Nagar in Men’s singles SH6 badminton, Sumit Antil in Men’s Javelin Throw F64, and Manish Narwal in Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 were among the Indian gold medalists at the Tokyo Paralympics.
Bhavinaben Patel won silver in Women’s Singles Class 4 Table Tennis, Singhraj Adhana won silver in Mixed 50m Pistol SH1, Yogesh Kathuniya won silver in Men’s Discus F56, Nishad Kumar won silver in Men’s High Jump T47, Mariyappan Thangavelu won silver in Men’s High Jump T63, Praveen Kumar won silver in Men’s High Jump T64.
Avani Lekhara won bronze in the Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1, Harvinder Singh won bronze in Men’s Individual Recurve Archery, Sharad Kumar won bronze in Men’s High Jump T63, Sundar Singh Gurjar won bronze in Men’s Javelin Throw F46, Manoj Sarkar won bronze in Men’s Singles Badminton SL3, and Singhraj Adhana won bronze in Men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1.
The following are the records set by Indian medalists: Sumit Antil holds the F64 Men’s Javelin World Record (Gold), Manish Narwal – Paralympic Record in P4 Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 (Gold), Nishad Kumar – Asian Record in Men’s High Jump T47 (Silver), and Praveen Kumar – Asian Record in Men’s High Jump T64 (Silver). Avani Lekhara – World Record and Paralympic Record in R2 Women’s 10m Air Standing SH1 (Gold) (Silver).
A few Indian para-athletes were unable to compete for medals. Swaroop Unhalkar (Para Shooting), Sandeep Chaudhary, Soman Rana, Navdeep (Para-Athletics), and Tarun Dhillon (Para Badminton) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in their respective events. Sakina Khatun (Para Powerlifting), Ram Pal, Amit Saroha (Para-Athletics), and Rahul Jakhar (Para Shooting) finished fifth. (Livemint.com)
