Paris, France
India has registered its best-ever medals tally at the ongoing Paris Paralympics as para-athletes continue to make the nation proud. With five medals on a superb Tuesday, India now has 20 medals at the Paris Paralympics, surpassing the 19-medal tally from the Tokyo 2020 Games (held in 2021 due to the outbreak of COVID-19). However, with fewer gold medals than the Tokyo Games, technically Paris Games is India’s second-best return in the quadrennial event.
India surpasses Tokyo tally
On Tuesday (Sep 3), Deepthi Jeevanji and Sharad Kumar were the stars of the show as they won medals in their respective events. Mariyappan Thangavelu, Ajeet Singh and Sundar Gurjar would then put icing on the cake taking India’s tally to 20 with a key medal addition.
India could have added more medals on the day had Bhagyashri Mahavrao and Avani Lekhara not narrowly missed out. Bhagyashri finished 5th in the Women's Shot Put while Avani took fifth position in the Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1 final.
So far India has collected three gold, seven silver and 10 bronze medals at the Paris Paralympics marking a historic run. With Para Games coming to a close on Sunday there is still time for India to add to their tally of medals as a historic run awaits.
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India awaits for more history
As things stand, despite most medals at a single Para Games in Paris technically India is yet to better their Tokyo Para Games performance. With gold medals followed by silver medals deciding the order of standings, the Asian giants need two more medals to match their Tokyo Paralympics gold medal tally. India won five gold medals in Tokyo compared to Paris and needs at least two more gold medals in the remaining five days.
At the time of writing, India needs three outright gold medals or two gold medals and a silver medal to better their tally at the Tokyo Games.