Posted by NEWS : Vinod Kumar yesterday late in day bagged a bronze medal for India in discus throw F52 category, today the Tokyo Paralympics Technical Delegates decided that Vinod Kumar isn’t eligible for discus F52 category and as a result he loses his bronze and India’s medal count is back at 2. (Excluding today’s events)
WOMEN’S 10M AR STANDING SH1 : Avani Lekhara had a slow start that she quickly converted and made through to the finals. After her first three shots she was positioned 19th, she completed her first series of 10 shots and gathered 103.0 points and was positioned 9th. After series 2 Avani moved up by a rank with a score of 102.8. Avani quickly changed gares as she started converting her scores, she shot a strong 104.9 and 104.8 in series 3 and 4 with great consistency and was up in rankings in the finals contention. She shot 1 bad in series 5 and had a score of 102.1 and knew it was matter of a good series for the final berth and in the final series 6 she held her nerve and shot a brilliant 104.1 to finish her outing with a total of 621.7, she was ranked 7th and moved to the finals.
WOMEN’S 10M AR STANDING FINALS : 19 Y/O Avani Lekhara scripts history with a gold to her name, India have their first medal in para shooting and what better medal colour could have one asked for it’s started with a gold, doesn’t get better, Avani is also the first Indian women to win a gold at Paralympics. Avani wasted no time and had the momentum after a good round 1, she finished her 1st competition stage and was positioned second with a score of 103.3. In Elimination round, Avani was at the top with a score of 166.9 to finish round 3. Maintained her top rank with 187.8 in round 4 and 209 in round 5. Avani finsihed the final round 6 with a score of 249.6 equalising the world record and set a new Paralympics record. Avani was 7th in Round 1, on the edge and qualified, never let momentum slip and finished first in finals, a true gem gets herself a golden finish.
MEN’S 10M AR STANDING SH1 : Shooters Swaroop Mahavir Unhalkar and Deepak Saini were in action, was a good start for Swaroop Mahavir as in his opening series he started with a score of 103.1 and was 4th in rankings, Deepak Saini started with a low 97.9 and was 16th in rankings. In second series, Swaroop slipped to 8th in rankings with a total of 204.7 and Deepak too fell down to 18th rank with a total of 197.6. End of 3rd series Swaroop climbed one in the rankings with a score of 306.9, Deepak slipped one rank with a score of 298.9. Next 3 sets Swaroop was just in and around the contention for finals with some good consistency in points towards the end he finsihed 7th making it to the finals with a score of 615.2. Deepak Saini never could stage a comeback after a low start and finsihed 20th in the rankings with a total of 592.6 points.
MEN’S 10M AR STANDING FINAL : Swaroop had good momentum going into the finals, had a good start that he failed to capitalise and under pressure saw a nervy finish. Swaroop Mahavir Unhalkar started his first series of 6 shots with 51.2 points and was positioned 3rd, he completed his 1st competition stage with 102.1 points and was ranked 2. In the elimination round, Swaroop was at the top with 122.7 points, he dropped a rank with a score of 143 and with a score of 164.2 he regained the top rank. With two poor shots he slipped to 4 in rankings with 183.6 points. Swaroop finsihed ranked 4th with 203.9 points and that was the end, 3rd ranked Andrii had a total of 204.2 and bags the bronze. Swaroop Mahavir misses the bronze with a difference of 0.3, so close yet so far.
MEN’S DISCUS THROW FINAL F56 : Yogesh Kathuniya bags a silver for India with a throw of 44.38 that had come in the final sixth attempt. Yogesh didn’t have the best of starts as he started with a foul throw and soon in his second attempt he made up for it with a massive throw of 42.84. Yogesh again missed making a count in his third and fourth attempt as they were both foul throws and in his final two he give it all it took to throw a 43.55 in his fifth attempt and improving it by a number and made it count big as he registered a throw of 44.38 in the final attempt that saw him bag the silver for India. Each valid throw of Yogesh was a season best and it just kept getting better. India’s 2nd of the day and 4th of the Paralympics 2020.
MEN’S JAVELIN THROW FINAL F46 : Devendra Jhajharia and Sundar Singh Gurjar bagged a silver and a bronze respectively taking India’s medal count to 6. Sundar was the first to throw among the Indian trio and started with a season best of 62.58, Devendra had a 60.28 and Ajeet registered a throw of 56.15 in their first attempts. Devendra in his second covered a distance of 60.62 and went past his previous world record once again with a throw of 64.35 that ensured him a silver and finsihed with a 61.23. Sundar Singh didn’t registered a score in his 3rd and 4th attempt as they were foul throws and in his 5th attempt he covered a distance of 64.01 for his season best and was in the medal contention that saw him bag a bronze and his last throw was invalid. Ajeet didn’t have the best of outings as he couldn’t better his opening score of 56.15 as it was followed with 4 foul throws and a 52.36 in his last throw.
MEN’S JAVELIN THROW F64 FINAL : Sandeep Choudhary and Sumit Antil feature in the event. Sumit this time and it’s come with a world record throw of 68.55 m who bags a gold for India, 2nd gold and 5th medal of the day for India. Sumit improved the world record thrice in the finals. Sumit was the first to start proceedings and does it in style with a record breaking throw of 66.95 m, in his second attempt he again threw the Javelin rewriting the world record this time with a distance of 68.08 m. Sumit threw 65.27 m and 66.71 m in his third and fourth attempt. Carrying a good momentum and hot form Sumit in his 5th attempt rewrote the world record with a monstrous throw of 68.55 that got India a gold and what better fashion than rewriting a world record thrice in a final. Sandeep Choudhary finished 4th in the rankings, started with a throw of 61.13m and his second throw was invalid. In his third he recorded a distance of 62.20 m, a couple more foul throws and a 62.03 in his final attempt to wrap India’s day.
Was a big day for India today with many medal events and each Athelete ensured there’s no disappointment, India finish with 5 medals today and the total tally is at 7. That is it for the day, many more events and medal events on India’s schedule tomorrow, stay tuned !
Bureau of sports 