Sprinter Deepthi Jeevanji's Bronze Lights Up India's Day At Paralympics

PARIS: World champion sprinter Deepthi Jeevanji ensured that India's Paralympic medal haul from track-and-field continued to swell with her bronze-winning effort in the women's 400m (T20) event on a largely uneventful day for the country here on Tuesday. The 20-year-old Jeevanji clocked 55.82sec to secure a podium finish in her debut Games appearance. She finished behind Yuliia Shuliar (55.16sec) of Ukraine and world record holder Aysel Onder (55.23sec) of Turkey.

India's overall medal count increased by one to 16, including three gold medals, and track-and-field has so far contributed half a dozen to this tally. The country is currently placed 18th in the standings. The rather quiet day was in sharp contrast to the medal rush on Monday when India logged seven podium finishes, including two golds.

Daughter of farm labourers from Kalleda Village in Telangana's Warangal district, Jeevanji was diagnosed with intellectual impairment after being spotted at a school level athletics meet by one of her teachers. Growing up, she and her parents were subjected to taunts by natives of her village due to her disability.

However, the same village has been celebrating her ever since she won a gold at last year's Asian Para Games before breaking the world record at the Para World Championships in May this year to fetch another gold. The youngster was also assisted by national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand after she began training with her formative coach Nagpuri Ramesh.

The T20 category is meant for athletes who have intellectual impairment.

However, ace Indian shooter Avani Lekhara missed out on a second medal at the Games as she finished fifth in the final of the women's 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 competition in Chateauroux. The 22-year-old, paralysed waist-down at 11 years of age owing to a car accident, shot a total of 420.6 across the three stages of kneeling, prone and standing in a world-class eight-woman field.

However, she has lots to celebrate after becoming first Indian woman to win consecutive gold medals at Paralympics following a top finish in the 10m air rifle competition last week. Germany's Natascha Hiltrop won the gold with a total of 456.5, Slovakian Veronika Vadovicova claimed silver with 456.1, and China's Zhang shot 446.0 to bag the bronze.

The SH1 class is designated for athletes with lower-limb impairment for competition in rifle shooting events. Here shooters are able hold their gun without difficulty and shoot from a standing or sitting position (in a wheelchair or chair).

Bhagyashri Jadhav finished fifth in the women's shot put (F34). Jadhav, making her second appearance at the Paralympics, produced a throw of 7.28m but it was not enough for a podium finish.

China's Lijuan Zou won the gold with a season's best of 9.14m while Poland's Lucyna Kornobys secured the silver with an effort of 8.33m. The 39-year-old Indian, who hails from Nanded district in Maharashtra, is an inspiring story of resilience. She slipped into depression after losing the use of her legs due to an accident in 2006.

But she fought back to reclaim her life as a para-athlete with help from friends and family. World Para Championship silver medallist Pooja Jatyan beat Yagmur Sengul of Turkey in straight sets to storm into the quarterfinals of recurve women's open archery competition.

However, the 27-year-old could not sustain the momentum and lost to Tokyo Paralympics bronze-medallist Wu Chunyan of China in the last-eight stage. It was a particularly painful loss to Chunyan given that Pooja led 4-0 at one stage.

A winner of four Paralympics medals, including a team gold in 2016 Rio Games, the 34-year-old Chinese archer was nowhere in the picture after a disastrous opening set in which she shot twice in the 7-point red ring to aggregate 23 points.

But perhaps pressure got the better of Pooja, who fumbled her chance by allowing Chunyan to make a comeback in the third set, following which the match turned on its head.