NEW DELHI, Sept 8: India completed its Paris Paralympic Games 2024 with a record haul of 29 medals and ending at 18th position in the medals table doing better than many top athletics nations.
India’s best-ever haul included seven gold, nine silver and 13 bronze medals beating top nations like Switzerland, Belgium, South Korea, Turkey and Argentina to finish the Paris Para Games among the top 20 countries in the world.
Pakistan, who were also competing win the event, ended the campaign joint-bottom at the 79th position, with just a solitary bronze to its name.
India’s hope of securing at least one more medal on the concluding day on Sunday was dashed as Pooja Ojha, the final athlete in action, failed to qualify for the women’s kayak 200m final and bowed out of the competition.
The traditional heavyweights at the Paralympic Games — China, Great Britain, USA, Italy, etc. – finished among top 10 nations with China topping the table. India, having shown significant progression in Paris, would be keen to produce an even better show in the 2028 LA Para Games.
On Saturday, India earned its 29th and final medal of the Paris Paralympic Games through Navdeep Singh who clinched gold medal in men’s javelin throw F41 classification. Navdeep, who competes in the classification meant for athletes of short stature, originally ended with a silver after he upstaged world record holder Sun Pengxiang of China with a 47.32m throw.
However, that was upgraded to an unprecedented gold after Iran’s Sadegh Beit Sayah was disqualified for repeatedly displaying an objectionable flag. Pengxiang (44.72m) finished with a silver.
Sayah had managed to nose ahead of the field with a new Paralympic record of 47.64m in his penultimate throw but lost the medal owing to his antics. The International Paralympic Committee rules bar athletes from making any political gestures at the event and Sayah was thrown out of the final results for unsporting/improper conduct.
At the same venue, Simran, accompanied by her guide Abhay Singh, clocked an impressive personal best of 24.75sec to finish with a bronze in the women’s 200m (T12) event. The 24-year-old from Delhi, who was found to be visually impaired at the time of her premature birth, is the reigning world champion in this event. She had finished fourth in the 100m competition of the ongoing Games and Saturday’s medal helped her redeem her campaign.
For Navdeep, the gold makes up for the fourth-place heartbreak he endured in the Tokyo Games. An inspector in the Income Tax Department, Navdeep has medalled five times at the national level since taking to the sport in 2017. He won a bronze in the para-world championships earlier this year.
Simran, on the other hand, won two silver medals at the Asian Para Games in Hangzhou last year and secured three gold medals in the 100m, 200m, and long jump at the inaugural Khelo India Para Games last December.
(Manas Dasgupta)