Paralympics Day 2: Golden girl Avani leads India's medal rush

The young Avani Lekhara became the first Indian to win two successive Paralympic gold medals with a record-breaking performance that cemented her place as one of the finest para-shooters in the world on a history-making day for the country, which also snared its maiden track medal through Preethi Pal.

The 22-year-old Avani, who was paralysed waist-down owing to a car accident as an 11-year-old, claimed the landmark gold in the women's 10m air rifle (SH1) shooting competition in Chateauroux.

On the second day of competitions, India also won a silver medal through Manish Narwal in the men's 10m air pistol (SH1) final, and two bronze medals.

The first of these came from 37-year-old late-bloomer Mona Agarwal, also a wheelchair-bound athlete, in the same event in which Avani reigned supreme and the second was clinched by Preethi in the women's 100m (T35) meet in Paris with a personal best performance. 

How India's athletes fared on Day 2 of the Paris Paralympic Games on Friday.

Avani retains Paralympics gold in 10m air rifle

Avani Lekhara won a second successive Paralympic Games gold medal in women's 10m air rifle (SH1) event as compatriot Mona Agarwal claimed a bronze.

Avani, who won the gold medal atthe Tokyo Paralympics three years back, shot a superb 249.7 to erase her own record of 249.6 set in Japanese capital, while Mona, who took up shooting sport in 2022, notched up 228.7 for the bronze.

Avani, who is wheel-chair bound after a car mishap left her paralysed below the waist when she was 11-years-old, had became the first woman shooter from the country to win medals in shooting at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021.

Narwal wins silver in 10m air pistol event

Tokyo Games gold medallist shooter Manish Narwal fought hard before settling for silver in the men's 10m air pistol (SH1) event at the Paris Paralympics.

The 22-year-old Narwal, who had won gold in 50m pistol event at Tokyo, was leading for quite some time before he slipped because of a series of poor scores to surrender the initiative to veteran South Korean marksman Jo Jeongdu.

Narwal, the elder brother of Indian pistol marksman Shiva Narwal, shot 234.9, while Jeongdu took the gold with a total of 237.4.

Rakesh enters pre-quarterfinals; Swami crashes out

Seasoned archer Rakesh Kumar began his campaign with an easy 136-131 win over Senegal's Aliou Drame to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the compound men's open category.

Fifth seed Rakesh will face Indonesia's 12th seed Ken Swagumilang for a place in the quarter-finals.

Asian Para Games silver medallist Rakesh, who was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Paralympics, started strongly, hitting one perfect 10 in the first end to take a three-point lead.

Aliou took the second end with a one-point win but Rakesh still held his lead and extended it by five points in the third end, shooting two 10s.

The Indian went on to establish a six-point lead, winning the fourth end.

Aliou took the final end of three arrows dropping just one point, but Rakesh's healthy lead ensured his last-16 berth.

Another Indian, Shyam Sunder Swami, who got the 15th seed in the qualification round, crashed out after losing to Comsan Singpirom of Thailand in a thrilling shoot-off finish.

Enjoying a three-point lead till the penultimate round, Swami failed to wrap it up as Singpirom brought it level 138-138 to force a shoot-off.

Both shot 10 in the shoot-off, but the Thai archer was adjudged winner with his arrow landing closer to the centre.

Badminton: Suhas, Nitesh, Thulasimathi in semis

Tokyo Games silver medallist shuttler Suhas Yathiraj and Nitesh Kumar continued their impressive run to secure spots in the men's singles SL4 and SL3 semi-finals respectively.

Murugesan Thulasimathi also made it to the women's singles SU5 semis after topping Group A. She beat Beatriz Monteiro of Portugal 21-12, 21-8 for her second win in the group.

Suhas, a 2007 batch IAS officer, defeated Korea's Shin Kyung Hwan 26-24, 21-14 in his second match, topping the three-man Group A in the SL4 category.

Meanwhile, Nitesh, a 29-year-old IIT Mandi graduate, dominated China's Yang Jianyuan with a convincing 21-5, 21-11 victory, ensuring a top-two finish in the four-man Group A of the SL3 category.

In the SL4 class, the group toppers advance to the last four, while in the SL3 class, the top two players from each of the two groups qualify for the semi-finals.

Nitesh, who suffered permanent leg damage due to an accident in 2009, will next face Thailand's Bunsun Mongkhon in his final Group A match.

However, it was a disappointing day for Manasi Joshi and Manoj Sarkar, as they both suffered their second consecutive defeats, ending their chances of reaching the semi-finals in their respective groups.

Cycling: Shaik crashes out after bottom-place finish

Arshad Shaik finished at the bottom -- ninth place -- in the qualifying round to crash out of the track cycling's men's pursuit C2 category.

The 31-year-old finished the race with a time of 4:20.949. The top-four made the cut for the final round.

Alexandre Léauté of France took the top spot with a world-record timing of 3:24.298, followed by Ewoud Vromant of Belgium (3:27.640), Matthew Robertson of Great Britain (3:28.373) and Shota Kawamoto of Japan (3:29.875).

Shaik will have another chance in track cycling, in the men's 1000m time trial C1-3 category on Saturday.

He will also compete in the road cycling events -- men's time trial C2 and men's road race C1-3.

C1 to C5 are solo categories practised by athletes competing with prosthesis or limited movement of upper or lower limbs.

Rowing: Anita-Narayana finish 5th

The Indian mixed pair of Anita and Narayana Konganapalle managed a fifth-place finish in their Mixed PR3 Double Sculls heat.

The India duo completed the race with a time of 8:06.84, behind Australia (7:11.30), France (7:24.25), Ukraine (7:26.31) and United States (7:44.88).

The pair had won a silver medal at the Asian Para Games last year in the same category.

The Australian team advanced to the Final A as heat 1 winner. The remaining teams will compete in repechage round.

TT: Bhavina-Sonal ousted in quarter-finals

India's para table tennis players Bhavinaben Patel and Sonalben Patel bowed out of the women's doubles WD 10 contest with a 1-3 quarter-final loss against A Young Jung and Sunghya Moon.

The eighth seed Indians went down 5-11, 6-11, 11-9, 6-11 in a 39-minute contest to their South Korean opponents at the South Paris Arena.

Both Bhavina, the Tokyo Paralympics silver medallist, and Sonalben will be in action in their respective singles event.

Bhavina, who became the first-ever Indian table tennis player to win a medal at the Paralympics during the Tokyo Games in 2021, was diagnosed with polio when she was 12 months old. She competes in class 4 category.

Like Bhavina, Sonalben was also diagnosed with polio when she was six months old, which later affected both her legs as well as her right hand, leaving her with 90 per cent disability. She competes in class 3 category.

There are 11 classes in total (five sitting, six standing): TT1-5 are for wheelchair athletes, TT6-10 are for standing athletes and TT11 is for athletes with intellectual impairments.

Manu finishes sixth in shot put F37

Manu finished sixth in men's F37 shot put event with a throw of 13.86m.

His best effort of the day came from his fourth attempt.

Marufkhujaev Kudratillokhon (16.37m) of Uzbekistan won the gold while Ben Moslah Ahmed (15.40m) of Tunisia and Yuldashev Tolibboy (15.24m), also of Uzbekistan, took the silver and bronze respectively.

The 25-year-old Manu had won a shot put F37 bronze medal in last year's Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China.

F37 is for field athletes with a moderately affected coordination and movement down one side.