Fantastic Four

Shooter Manish Narwal smashed a Games record while shuttler Pramod Bhagat asserted his supremacy with his gold-winning performance as India’s tally swelled to 17 after a four-medal show on a memorable penultimate day at the Tokyo Paralympics, here on Saturday.

The 19-year-old Manish shot a total of 218.2, a Paralympic record, for gold in the P4 Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 event while Pramod humbled Great Britain’s Daniel Bethell in the men’s singles SL3 class final for a historic yellow metal. India now has four gold, seven silver, and six bronze medals to be placed 26th in the standings.

More medals are in store for India on the final day as shuttlers Suhas Yathiraj and Krishna Nagar have sailed into the men’s singles finals of the SL4 class and SH6 class respectively. Tarun Dhillon too is in contention for bronze after losing his semi-final fixture while the duo of Pramod and Palak Kohli will feature in the third-place play-off in the mixed SL3-SL5 class.

Manish smashed the Paralympic record to clinch India’s third gold while his compatriot Singhraj Adana won silver to make it a stunning one-two finish for the nation. Adana became only the third Indian to win multiple medals in the same edition of the Games.

Shooter Avani Lekhara, who won gold and bronze at the ongoing Games, and Joginder Singh Sodhi, who fetched silver and two bronze medals at the 1984 Paralympics, are the other Indians who have achieved the feat.

Badminton stars impress

With badminton making its debut at the Paralympics, world champion and pre-tournament favorite Pramod became the first Indian to win a gold medal in the sport.

Pramod secured the historic gold medal by beating Great Britain’s Daniel Bethell in the summit clash while Manoj Sarkar bagged the bronze after defeating Japan’s Daisuke Fujihara in the third-place play-off. Athletes with lower limb impairment compete in the SL3 classification.

The top-seeded Pramod, who is also the Asian champion, showed great mental fortitude as he prevailed 21-14, 21-17 over second-seeded Daniel in a thrilling final that lasted 45 minutes. The 33-year-old Pramod, who had contracted polio when he was four, also remains in contention for a bronze medal in the mixed doubles SL3-SU5 class.

Pramod and his partner Palak will meet the Japanese pairing of Fujihara and Akiko Sugino in the bronze medal play-off on Sunday. The 31-year-old Manoj, whose right leg was affected after he contracted polio at age one, completed a 22-20, 21-13 win over Fujihara to finish third. In the SL4 class, Suhas outwitted Indonesia’s Fredy Setiawan 21-9, 21-15 in his first semi-final clash.

The 38-year-old Suhas, who has impairment in one of his ankles, will face top seed Lucas Mazur of France in the final on Sunday. Krishna seeded second, outplayed Great Britain’s Krysten Coombs 21-10, 21-11 in the SH6 class semi-finals. He will cross swords with Chu Man Kai of Hong Kong in the final on Sunday.

In the SL4 class semi-finals, Tarun went down 16-21, 21-16, 18-21 to Mazur.