Silver lining for shot-putter Sachin; India's medal haul hits 21 at Paralympics
The 34-year-old Sachin Sarjerao Khilari pulled off 16.32m throw in his second attempt of the F46 category final to better his own Asian record of 16.30m
PTI
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World champion shot-putter Sachin Sarjerao Khilari. PHOTO: PTI
Paris, 4 Sept
World champion shot-putter Sachin
Sarjerao Khilari smashed the Asian record en route a silver on Wednesday as
India's track-and-field athletes continued to surpass expectations in what is
turning out to be the country's best ever performance at the Paralympics here.
The 34-year-old Khilari pulled off
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.
His silver on Wednesday was medal
number 21 for the nation, which is currently placed 19th in the overall
standings with three gold, eight silver and 10 bronze medals.
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 surpassed.
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.
Harvinder enters quarters in
archery
Tokyo Games bronze-winner Harvinder
Singh secured back-to-back wins to reach quarterfinals in his bid for a second
successive Paralympics medal in archery.
Harvinder knocked out Tseng
Lung-Hui of Chinese Taipei 7-3 before overcoming an opening set deficit to edge
out Setiawan Setiawan of Indonesia 6-2 in the last-16 round.
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.
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