Mariyappan Thangavelu and Sharad Kumar won a silver and bronze respectively in the men’s high jump T63 event and shooter Singhraj Adana fetched a bronze in the men’s 10m air pistol SH1 event as India’s tally at the Paralympics touched an unprecedented 10 medals here on Tuesday.
India has so far won two gold, five silver and three bronze medals in the ongoing Games.
Mariyappan cleared 1.86m while American gold winner Sam Grewe, who finished behind the Indian in the T42 category at Rio, succeeded in soaring above 1.88m in his third attempt. Sharad took bronze with an effort of 1.83.
Varun finishes seventh
The third Indian in fray, and 2016 Rio Paralympics bronze-winner, Varun Singh Bhati ended seventh out of nine competitors after he failed to clear the 1.77m mark.
The Indians stayed inside the top three for a majority of the competition and Mariyappan was in contention for a gold as well.
The T63/F63 classification is for athletes with single through knee or above knee limb deficiency competing with a prosthesis where minimum impairment criteria for lower limb deficiency are met.
The T42 classification is for athletes with a leg deficiency, leg length difference, impaired muscle power or impaired passive range of movement in the legs. The athletes compete in a standing position.
Athletics has been the country’s happy hunting ground with one gold, four silver and two bronze so far and some more are expected before the Games wind up on Sunday.
Earlier, Singhraj Adana shot a total of 216.8 to finish the P1 men’s 10m air pistol SH1 event in third place after qualifying for the eight-man final as the sixth best shooter.
Manish flops in final
However, Manish Narwal, who topped the qualifications with 575, finished in the seventh place in the final. The other Indian in the event, Deepender Singh, finished 10th.
Hovering around the top three, Adana dropped out of contention with his poor 19th shot but managed to get back in the reckoning with his 20th attempt as China’s Xiaolong Lou got 8.6.
China dominated the finals with defending champion Chao Yang (237.9 — Paralympic record) and Huang Xing (237.5) winning gold and silver respectively.
In the women’s category, Rubina Francis finished seventh in the final.
As the pistol is held with one hand only, athletes in SH1 category have an impairment affecting one arm and/or the legs, for example resulting from amputations or spinal cord injuries. P1 is a classification for the men’s 10 air pistol competition. Shooters either compete in a seated or standing position as defined in the rules.
The Indian challenge in compound men’s Open archery ended after Rakesh Kumar lost to former World champion Xinliang Ai of China 143-145 in the quarterfinals. Rakesh had bounced back to best Marian Marecak of Slovakia 111-108 in the previous round.
The Indian women’s table tennis team of Bhavina Patel and Sonal Patel was outclassed 2-0 by China in the Class 4-5 quarterfinals.
