India at Tokyo Paralympics: Praveen bags silver, Avani & Harvinder win bronze

Tokyo: Three Indian para-athletes - high jumper Praveen Kumar (silver), archer Harvinder Singh (bronze) and shooter Avani Lekhara (bronze) produced exceptional performance and won medals for the country at the Tokyo Paralympics, here on Friday.

With three more more medals on Friday, India has now won 13 medals (two gold, six silver and five bronze) at the ongoing Tokyo games so far.

In the last competition of the day, Harvinder Singh clinched India's first ever archery medal in the Paralympics after beating Kim Min Su of South Korea 6-5 in a thrilling shoot-off in the men's individual recurve event in Tokyo.

In the bronze playoff, the 31-year-old was leading 5-3 before the Kroean clinched the fifth set shooting a perfect 10 to force a shoot-off where Harvinder responded in style shooting a perfect 10 against Kim's 8 for a 6-5 (26-24, 27-29, 28-25, 25-25, 26-27) (10-8) win.

In the semifinals, Singh lost to world number 10 Kevin Mather of the USA 6-4 in an intense five-setter (25-28, 24-24, 25-25, 25-24, 24-26).

Earlier in the day, shooter Avani Lekhara, 19, cinched the bronze medal in the women's 50m rifle three positions SH1 event at the Paralympics.

This was Lekhara's second medal at the Tokyo games, making her the first Indian woman to win multiple medals at the Paralympics. On Monday, she had become the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic gold in the 10m air rifle standing SH1 event.

In other event of the day, eighteen-year-old Praveen Kumar made a 2.07-m jump to set a new Asian record and win the silver medal in the men’s high jump T64 event of the Paralympics.

Meanwhile, India’s para shuttlers also continued their fine run at Tokyo 2020 with seven badminton players booking a place in the semi-finals of their respective events.

Having made the last-four in his singles event, three-time world champion Pramod Bhagat also entered the knock-outs of the mixed doubles as well.

Pramod and Palak Kohli beat the world no 3 pair of Siripong Teamarrom and Nipada Saensupa of Thailand 21-15, 21-19 to move into the semis of the mixed doubles SL3-SU5 event.

The 19-year-old Palak made the cut for the semi-finals in the women’s SU5 event as well. Having beaten Turkey’s Zehra Baglar in their Group A match on Thursday, the Indian confirmed her progress following Baglar’s loss to Japan’s Ayako Suzuki.

However, Palak Kohli and her partner Parul Parmar fell short in the women’s doubles SL3-SU5 event. They lost to France’s Lenaig Morin and Faustine Noel 12-21, 20-22 in their second group stage match and failed to make it to the knockout rounds.

In swimming, Indian para swimmers Suyash Narayan and Niranjan Mukundan failed to qualify for the final of the men’s 50m Butterfly S7 event at Tokyo 2020.

Suyash clocked 32.36 seconds to finish 10th on the overall standings while Niranjan Mukundan was 11th with a timing of 33.82 seconds at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre,

On the other hand, India’s canoe sprinter, Parchi Yadav, finished eighth in the final of the women’s Va’A single 200m - VL2. Qualifying for the final with a respectable run in the semis, the Indian athlete clocked 1:07.329 seconds in the medal round. (UNI)