Girl power drove India’s medal rush on the final day of the World Para Athletics Championships, with Simran Sharma and Preethi Pal lighting up the track with their silver-winning performances before javelin thrower Navdeep Singh concluded the hosts’ successful campaign by achieving another podium finish, winning a silver medal at the JLN Stadium on Sunday evening.
Sandeep took bronze in the 200m T44 final, as the country recorded its best-ever haul at a single edition of the para Worlds, finishing with 22 medals, including six gold. The hosts also won nine silver and seven bronze to finish in 10th position in the medals tally among 104 participating nations. At the previous edition in Kobe 2024, India had secured 17 medals, including six gold.
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However, the concluding day wasn’t without drama for India. It saw
Simran’s medal being upgraded to silver in the women’s 200m T12 final and a re-run of the women’s 100m T35 race, involving Preethi, due to a technical fault. According to officials, the starter gun had malfunctioned, resulting in the competition being rescheduled after an hour.
The evening started with Simran running another fine race with her guide Umar Saifi, clocking 24.46s for a new Asian record. Simran, who won gold in the 100m T12, had initially finished third for a bronze. But her medal was upgraded after eventual winner Venezuela’s Alejandra Lopez was disqualified for violating rule 7.10.4 of the competition, which states that the guide cannot offer any undue advantage to the athlete.
“It feels good to finish with a gold and silver in the event. In today’s race, we even made an Asian record. A lot of credit goes to my guide Saifi. He has been a big influence. We both gave our 100 percent. My body was exhausted after running back-to-back races. It was tough because of the challenging weather conditions. If you look at it overall, I ran six races (including heat 1 and 2 in 100m and 200m). It was my sixth race in two days.
So, it was difficult to maintain recovery. I was crying in the athletes’ recovery room this morning. I was unable to even bend my back; it was that bad. I kept explaining to myself that we had worked hard for these championships. This was my home ground, so I couldn’t disappoint my fans,” Simran said.
In the 100m T35 event, the two-time Paralympics bronze medallist Preethi and seven other finalists had to run the race twice in humid conditions after the starting gun fired twice.
In the first outing, Preethi had finished second behind China’s Guo Qianqian before the error was detected. The officials took close to 45 minutes to decide that the race would be held again.
In the re-run, Preethi clocked 14.33s to again end as a silver medallist behind Qianqian, who secured gold with a season best effort of 14.24s. “I didn’t have energy to run a second race. I was tired. Still, I managed to get silver. My motivation was low.
I looked at the crowd support, and it gave me motivation. I wanted to do well here. It wasn’t an ideal scenario, but I am happy,” Preethi said.
In javelin throw F41, Paris Paralympics gold medallist Navdeep Singh brought more cheers to the home camp after claiming silver with a season’s best effort of 45.46m. Navdeep struggled to find his usual rhythm and fouled his three throws. Iran’s Sadegh Beit Sayah, who had initially finished first at the Paris Paralympics but was later disqualified, trumped his Indian rival this time, winning gold with a new personal best of 48.86m.
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