World Para Athletics Championships 2025: Preeti Pal wins silver after 'dramatic' re-run in women’s 100m T35 final; India finishes with 22 medals

India’s Preeti Pal produced her season-best performance to clinch the silver medal in the women’s 100m T35 final on the concluding day of the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi on Sunday (October 5). Her medal, however, came after a dramatic sequence of events that saw the race being re-run due to a technical glitch at the start. Notably, the initial race was not halted after the starting gun fired twice, and all the athletes crossed the finishing line. It was only after a while that the officials reviewed the incident and decided to do a re-run after a gap of nearly one hour.

Preeti, who initially felt exhausted and demotivated, came back strongly to clock 14.33 seconds — her best time of the season — to secure the silver medal. “I was feeling that I won’t be able to come. My motivation was very low,” Preeti said after the race. “All the players were saying that they were very tired. I thought we are going home. But then we were not going home,” she laughed, recalling the confusion.

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She explained that the issue was ‘a double click’ from the starting gun at the start. “The race should have been stopped. We were called back in the call room again and told that the race will be conducted again in sometime,” she said. Despite the disruption, Preeti delivered when it mattered. She also spoke about her bond with teammate Simran Sharma, who had earlier won silver in the 100m T12 event. “When I won the first race, Simran came to me. She asked me to do it again. I said I will do it again — with love,” Preeti said with a smile. “It is fun to win a race,” she added. “No matter how tough it is, it is never really tough.”

Preeti’s silver set the tone for what turned out to be a strong finish for India on the final day of championships. Sandeep claimed the bronze medal in the men’s 200m T44 final, clocking a personal best of 23.60 seconds. Simran Sharma added to her medal tally with a silver in the women’s 200m T12 final, following her gold earlier in the meet. Meanwhile, Navdeep delivered a personal best throw of 45.46m to secure silver in the men’s javelin throw F41 final. The podium finishes on the last day capped off a memorable championship for India. India finished with a total fo 22 medals (6 gold, 9 silver and 7 bronze), their best-ever medal tally.