India reached another milestone at the Paris Paralympics by exceeding its Tokyo Paralympic gold medal count on Day 9 of the ongoing quadrennial event. Praveen Kumar claimed the gold medal in the Men’s High Jump T64 event on Friday, raising the total of gold medals to 6.
Praveen Kumar, the Tokyo Paralympics silver medallist, created a new Asian record and clinched the gold medal in the Men’s High Jump T46 event with a leap of 2.08m. Derek Loccident of the USA secured the silver medal with a best jump of 2.06m, while both Temurbek Giyazov of Uzbekistan and Maciej Lepiato of Poland, cleared 2.03m each to earn bronze medals.
Hokato Hotozhe Sema also secured a podium finish on for India on Friday by earning the bronze medal in the Men’s Shot Put F57 event with his personal best throw of 14.65m. Soman Rana finished in 5th place with his best effort of 14.07m. Yasin Khosravi of Iran set a new Paralympics record with his best throw of 15.96m, secured the gold medal. Paulino dos Santos of Brazil bragged the silver medal with a throw of 15.06m.
Bhavanaben Ajabaji Chaudhary secured 5th place in the F46 Javelin Throw event after setting a personal best of 39.70 meters. She surpassed her previous personal best of 35.66 meters not once, but three times during this competition.
Simran Sharma with her guide Abhay Singh qualified for the finales of the Women’s 200 m T12 after clocking a time of 25.41 seconds in her heats, followed by another impressive time of 25.03 seconds in the semifinals. The event finale is set to take place on Saturday.
Based on the results on day 9, India’s medal tally stands at 27, which consists of 6 gold medals, 9 silver medals, and 12 bronze medals. This surpasses India’s previous best performance at the Tokyo Paralympics, where the country had won a total of 19 medals, including 5 gold medals, 8 silver medals, and 6 bronze medals.