Making light of the challenges enroute the Paris Paralympics, Indian para shooters made it a celebration in gold, silver and bronze on Day 1 of competition at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre.
Gold and bronze by Avani Lekhara and Mona Agarwal, respectively, in Women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1, and Manish Narwal’s silver in Men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1 is a gritty statement of intent from the trio as India picked up from they had left at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
Just a day into competition, Tokyo’s haul of 2 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze in the sport looks set to be overhauled as once again the Indian para shooters proved a notch above the competition in Paris.
The colour of the medals doesn’t matter here as taking aim at the Chateauroux Range is in itself an achievement for Avani, Mona and Manish, given their journeys. And to successfully aim for a medal is testament to their never-say-die spirit in surmounting overwhelming odds.
By keeping her record intact in Paris on Friday, Avani added another feather to her cap by becoming the first Indian para athlete to bag gold in successive Paralympic Games.
Turning out in his second Games, Manish too could have added to his Tokyo gold, which came in 50m Pistol SH1, but silver in 10m Air Pistol is no less commendable.
Call it fate, it was on this date, three years ago that Avani had created a Paralympic record of 249.6 in Tokyo, and on Friday, bettered it by 0.1 (249.7) in the final to emerge a world beater again in her pet event.
Korea’s Lee Yunri trailed with a score of 246.8, but the effort was good enough to give her silver over Mona, who finished with a 228.7 after she was elminated on the 22nd shot for bronze in her debut at the Paralympic Games.
Stricken by polio as a child, Mona is a late bloomer, but the Paris bronze is huge validation of her journey as an athlete, wife and mother.
Avani, who lost mobility in a car crash at a young age, was up there in qualification too, finishing second with 625.8 behind Ukraine’s Iryna Shchetnik, who shot a Paralympic Qualification Record of 627.5 to top the list of eight para shooters making the final. Mona was 5th with a 623.1. Among the finalists was China’s Zhang Cuiping, who had topped qualification in Tokyo with a Paralympic qualification record of 626.0, but could not match her performance this time.
Born with a condition in the right hand, Manish, backed by his wrestler-turned-businessman father’s unflinching support, turned adversity into a weapon in a way that he has made his way into the pantheon of greats in Indian para shooting.
With a score of 234.9, Manish’s silver was the country’s third medal of the day, and Friday’s show could well set the tone for India for the rest of the Games.
Gold went to Korea’s Jo Jeongdu with a score of 237.4, and bronze to China’s Yang Chao with a 214.3 after 22 shots. Incidentally, Chao holds the world record of 241.8, set in May last year at Changwon, and the Paralympic record of 237.9 at the Tokyo Games.
Jo also topped qualification with a score of 577, while Manish was 5th with a 565.