Paris Paralympics 2024: Sports in which India won its first-ever gold

India won a total of seven gold medals at Paris Paralympics.

India put on its best performance at the Paris Paralympics 2024. A total of 29 medals were won which eclipsed the 19 won at the Tokyo Paralympics 2020. The tally of seven gold medals is also two more than what was won at Tokyo.

The seven gold medalists include Avani Lekhara (Shooting Para Sport), Nitesh Kumar (Para Badminton), Sumit Antil (Para Athletics), Dharambir Nain (Para Athletics), Harvinder Singh (Para Archery), Praveen Kumar (Para Athletics) and Navdeep Singh (Para Athletics), in the order in which they recorded podium finishes.

While some gold medals were won in a dominant fashion, few had intense clashes right till the end of the match. Some gold medalists were along expected lines, while others came as a pleasant surprise. A few of them were defending their title from Tokyo, while others stood on top of the Paralympics podium for the first time.

Without further ado, let’s have a look at all the disciplines in which India won a gold medal for the first time at the Paralympics:

Harvinder Singh (Men’s Individual Recurve Open)

Harvinder Singh became the first Indian archer to clinch a Paralympic gold medal. After becoming the first Indian archer to medal at the Paralympics with a bronze at Tokyo, the 33-year-old put on a clutch performance to change the colour in Paris.

After being seeded ninth following the ranking rounds, Harvinder had a shaky start in the Round of 32 against Tseng Lung-Hui of Chinese Taipei, but managed to secure a 7-3 victory. He, however settled down in a 6-2 victory against Indonesian Setiawan. This was followed by a victory by an identical margin against Colombian Hector Julio Ramirez in the quarter-final.

With a 7-3 victory against Iranian fourth seed Mohammed Reza Arab Ameri in the semi-final, Harvinder was assured of an upgrade on his medal won at Tokyo.

Also Read: Paris Paralympics 2024: Harvinder Singh clinches historic gold in para-archery individual recurve open

The archer from Kaithal, Haryana had reserved his best performance for the final, securing a 6-0 victory against Pole Lukasz Ciszek. Stunningly, all of his nine arrows in the match landed in the yellow zone.

Dharambir Nain (Men’s Club Throw F51)

India’s first Paralympic medal in club throw, turned out to be an event in which the nation achieved it’s only 1-2 podium finish at Paris. Dharambir Nain clinched the gold medal, while Pranav Soorma won silver in the Men’s Club Throw F51 event.

Dharambir, 35, had a nightmare of a beginning, as he registered four foul throws. Three of them hit the net, while the other went out of bounds. When things were looking bleak for the 2024 World Championship bronze medalist, he achieved a stunning throw of 34.92m on his fifth attempt breaking the Asian Area record.

On his sixth attempt, he registered a decent distance of 31.59m. Dharambir’s fifth attempt was sufficient for the athlete from Rohtak, Haryana to secure a place at the top of the podium.

Pranav finished second, not by much, achieving his best throw of 34.59m on his first attempt. Two-time Paralympic champion Zeljko Dimitrijevic of Serbia achieved a throw of 34.18m to win bronze.

Praveen Kumar (Men’s High Jump T64)

While India has had a Paralympic gold medal winner in high jump previously in the form of Mariyappan Thangavelu, Praveen Kumar won the nation its first Paralympic gold in the T64 event. The 23-year-old, who had won a silver medal at Tokyo, did one better at Paris.

After finishing fourth at this year’s World Championship with a best jump of 1.94m, he got sweet redemption, managing to cross the 2.08m barrier this time. Stunningly, the lad from Govindgarh, Uttar Pradesh, cleared every jump of his on the first attempt until the 2.08m mark.

By the time Praveen had three failed attempts for achieving a jump of 2.10m to his name, he was already assured of a gold. The Indian also crossed the Asian Area Record of 2.07m, which he himself had set at the Tokyo 2020 Games.

American Derek Loccident, who was struggling in between, eventually cleared the 2.06m barrier to win silver. The bronze medal was shared between Uzbekistani Temurbek Giyazov and Pole Maciej Lepiato, with both scaling a distance of 2.03m.

Navdeep Singh (Men’s Javelin Throw F41)

India has had javelin throw legends in the form of Devendra Jhajharia and Sumit Antil, who are both two-time Paralympic champions, representing the nation. However, Navdeep Singh won India’s first gold in the F41 event.

Navdeep, with his gold medal, which was won in the most dramatic fashion, gave India a perfect finish to the Paris Paralympics 2024. The 23-year-old thus got redemption, after finishing fourth at the Tokyo Games.

After starting with a foul throw, Navdeep achieved a massive distance of 46.39m on his second attempt and then stunningly broke the Paralympic record with a throw of 47.32m on his next attempt. Iranian Sadegh Beit Sayah, however, achieved a gargantuan distance of 47.64m on his fifth attempt, to push the Indian into second place.

With the athlete from Panipat, Haryana registering a foul on his sixth attempt, it seemed as if he had won silver. However, Sadegh was disqualified for improper conduct and Navdeep’s medal was upgraded to gold. Hence, Chinese Sun Pengxiang was awarded silver with his best throw measuring 44.72m, while Iraqi Wildan Nukhailawi registered a throw of 40.46m to win bronze.

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