India secured a total of 8 medals, including 2 gold medals on Day 5 of the ongoing Paris Paralympics on Monday. Nitesh Kumar and Sumit Antil won gold medals, while Indian athletes also claimed 3 silver and 3 bronze medals, bringing India’s overall medal tally to 15.
Para shuttler Nitesh Kumar won India’s first gold medal on Day 5 of the Paris Paralympics and the nation’s second overall of the competition. He emerged victorious in the Men’s Singles SL3 event final defeating Great Britain’s Daniel Bethell 21-14, 18-21, 23-21.
Sumit Antil once again proved his dominance in the Men’s Javelin Throw F64 event by defending his crown and breaking his own previous Paralympics record. With a throw of 70.59m, he secured his consecutive second gold medal in the event, surpassing his own previous record. The previous record stood at 68.55m, set by Sumit himself at the Tokyo Paralympics. In addition to his gold-winning throw, he achieved two further efforts that measured 69.11m and 69.04m. Sandeep Chaudhary came 4th with a best effort of 62.80m. Sandip Sargar finished in 7th place with best throw of 58.03m.
India clinched 3 silver medals, with 1 coming from Athletics and 2 from Badminton on Day 5. In the Men’s Discus Throw – F56 event, Yogesh Kathuniya earned a silver medal with a best effort of 42.22m, marking his 2nd Paralympics silver. He had also won a silver medal at the Tokyo Paralympics.
Thulasimathi Murugesan and Suhas Yathiraj settled for silver after losing their respective gold medal matches. Thulsimathi was defeated by Yang Qiuxia of China with a score of 17-21, 10-21 in the final of the Women’s Singles Su5 event.
Suhas Yathiraj lost to Lucas Mazur of France with a score of 9-21, 13-21 in the final of the Men’s Singles SL4 event to settle for silver. This is the second consecutive Paralympics silver for Suhas, who works as an IAS officer in the Uttar Pradesh cadre. Sukant Kadam missed out on bronze in the same event losing to Fredy Setiawan of Indonesia in the bronze medal match by 17-21, 18-21.
India also took 3 bronze medals on Day 5, 2 of which came from Badminton and 1 from Archery. Manisha Ramadass secured the bronze medal in the Women’s Singles SU5 event by defeating Cathrine Rosengren of Denmark with a score of 21-12, 21-8 in the bronze medal match. Nithya Sre Sivan claimed the bronze medal in the Women’s Singles SH6 event. She outclassed Rina Marlina of Indonesia 21-14, 21-12 in the bronze medal contest.
Rakesh Kumar and Sheetal Devi grabbed a bronze medal in the Compund Mixed Team event in Archery after defeating the pair of Bonacina and Eleonora Sarti of Italy, in a closely fought contest by 156-155. They began their campaign with a 154-143 victory against the Indonesian pair of Ferelly and Swagumilang, but lost to the duo of Hemmati and Nouri of Iran in the Semi Finals, with a score of 152-152 (20-20*), in a tiebreaker. The contest was decided in the shoot-offs, where the Iranian team managed to hit one of the 10s closer to the center and thus won, progressing to the final.
As of now, India’s medal tally stands at 15, which comprises 3 gold, 5 silver, and 7 bronze medals. India’s best-ever performance at the perennial event came in the previous edition held in Tokyo which saw the country win a total of 19 medals, inclusive of 5 gold, 6 silver, and 8 bronze medals. With the way things are going, India is likely to cross their best-ever medal count in the Paris Paralympics.