KOBE (JAPAN), May 25: India ended their World Para Athletics Championships campaign with unprecedented success, scooping 17 medals, including six gold, to take the sixth spot in the standings with Delhi sprinter Simran Sharma winning the country’s sixth yellow metal here on Saturday.
Simran won the gold medal in women’s 200m T12 event with a personal best time of 24.95 seconds on the final day of competitions. She shaved off around one-fifth of a second from her earlier personal best of 25.16 seconds to win the gold.
Darlenys De La Severino (25.08) of Dominica and Lorraine Gomes De Aguiar (25.40) won the silver and bronze respectively. The T12 category is meant for athletes who have vision impairment.
India finished with 17 medals (6 gold, 5 silver, 6 bronze) to be at sixth place in the standings. This is India’s best-ever performance, having surpassed the earlier record medal haul of 10 medals (3 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze) it won in the 2023 edition in Paris.
China ended on top of the pile with 87 medals (33 gold, 30 silver, 24 bronze). Brazil (19 gold, 12 silver, 11 bronze), Uzbekistan (7 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze), Great Britain (7 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze) and United States (6 gold, 13 silver, 5 bronze) were at second, third, fourth and fifth respectively.
India’s other five gold winners are Deepthi Jeevanji (women’s 400m T20), Sachin Khilari (men’s shot put F46), Sumit Antil (men’s javelin F64), Thangavelu Mariyappan (men’s high jump T63) and Ekta Bhyan (women’s club throw F51).
Hailing from Burari village in Delhi, Simran was born prematurely with impaired vision which makes it difficult for her to see beyond 10m. She was kept in an incubator for seven months after her pre-term birth. But through sheer greed and determination, she rose to become a top para athlete of the country.
The 24-year-old Simran, who was mocked by people during childhood for her vision impairment, had won a silver each in 100m and 200m at the Hangzhou Para Asian Games last year. Her pillar of support has been her husband and coach Gajendra Singh, who is with the Indian Army and hails from Ghaziabad.
Two other Indians also won a bronze each on Saturday. Preethi Pal won a bronze in women’s 100m T35 category, her second medal of the championships. She had earlier won bronze in 200m in the same category on May 19.
Then, Navdeep Singh added another bronze medal in the men’s javelin throw F41 category with a season best performance of 42.82m.
Athletes who have co-ordination impairments compete in T35 category while the F41 event is meant for those with short stature.
Earlier, India were awarded the silver and bronze in men’s javelin throw F46 event after winning a protest against second-place finisher Dinesh Priyantha Herath of Sri Lanka.
Rinku Hooda and Ajeet Singh on Friday finished third and fourth respectively in the men’s F46 javelin throw final but the result was put on hold after India lodged a protest that Herath was ineligible to compete in the category.
In para sports, athletes are classified into groups with similar levels of physical ability to allow fair competition.
The 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.
“He (Herath) was not classified properly and did not belong to the F 46 category,” said an official from the Paralympic Committee of India.
India got a favourable decision and Herath was disqualified. Rinku, who originally finished third with an effort of 62.77m, was upgraded to second while Ajeet (62.11m) was handed a bronze.
“We won the protest against the Sri Lankan, who had also won gold at the Tokyo Paralympics, that he should not have been eligible to compete,” head coach Satyanarayan told PTI.
“Now, Rinku is the silver winner from the original third and Ajeet was upgraded from fourth place to bronze.”
Satyanarayan said the country’s best ever performance here was on expected lines.
“The number of medals we won was more or less the same that we had targeted though we had aimed for 7 gold. Indian para athletics and para sports as a whole is growing. We have done better than the 2023 Paris edition which was the best performance then,” he said.
“Tokyo Paralympics performance in the best so far but the country will do better in Paris Paralympics this year.”
India’s first medal — a gold in men’s javelin 46 event — in the World Para Athletics Championships was won by the legendary Devendra Jhajharia, who is currently the Paralympic Committee of India president, in the 2013 edition in Lyon, France.
India are being represented by 40 athletes, including eight women, in this championships. (PTI)
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