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On September 3, five medals were added to India's kitty at the Paralympics 2024 taking their tally to 20. This is the most number of medals India have won in a single edition of the games. 400m runner Deepthi Jeevanji, high jumpers Sharad Kumar and Mariyappan Thangavelu, javelin throwers Ajeet Singh and Sundar Gurjar got medals as the combined to script history in Paris.ย
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Jeevanji bagged the first medal of the day. In the women's 400m T20 category final, she clocked 55.82 seconds and won the bronze medal. The 20-year-old finished behind Ukraine's Yuliia Shuliar (55.16 seconds) and Turkey's Aysel Onder (55.23). T20 category is meant for athletes with intellectual impairment.
In the men's high jump T63 category, 32-year-old Sharad cleared 1.88m. 29-year-old Thangavelu got the bronze medal recording a jump of 1.85m. United States' Ezra Frech was way ahead of the India duo as he cleared the height of 1.94m. Athletes with single through knee or above knee limb deficiency participate in the T63 category.
In the F46 javelin throw final, Ajeet and Sundar won silver and bronze respectively. Ajeet's fifth throw of 65.62m surpassed Sundar whose javelin travelled a distance of 64.96m. The gold medal was won by Cuba's Guillermo Gonzalez Varona with a 66.16m throw. This was Sundar's second consecutive bronze medal. He won the bronze in Tokyo Olympics as well. Another Indian in the competition was Rinku who finished with his season best throw of 61.58m. In the F46 category, athletes with arm deficiency, impaired muscle power or impaired passive range of movement in arms compete in standing position.
Podium finishes missed
Earlier, there were a few narrow misses for Indian para-athletes. Gold medallist Avani Lekhara finished fifth in women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1 final. Bhagyashri Jadhav finished fifth as well in Women's Shot Put - F34 Final with a best throw of 7.28m. Also, Pooja Khanna crashed out from the quarterfinal round of the Women's Individual Recurve Open. Pooja lost to 4-6 to China's Wu Chunyan.
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Where do India stand on the medals tally?
With 20 medals, India are currently 19th on the medals tally. India slipped from 16th to 19th despite the late medal rush because there was no gold medal added to the kitty. India are behind South Korea, Germany, Thailand, Colombia and Israel as they have four medals each.
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