India has created history at the Tokyo Paralympics, returning home with as many as 19 medals, their best-ever tally in a single edition of the Paralympics by far. With as many as 5 gold medals, 8 silver medals, and 6 bronze medals, finishing inside the top 25 at the Para Games in the Japanese capital.
India’s tally of 19 is also the country’s best at a multi-spot world event, going past the tally of 13 registered at the Summer Youth Olympics in 2018. The record tally in Paralympics comes after the able-bodied athletes scripted history at the Tokyo Olympics, winning 7 medals, their best-ever tally at the Olympics.
India finished inside the top 25 in the medal table at the Tokyo Paralympics, going past their previous best by 15 medals. From its first-ever Paralympics in 1968 to 2016, India had won 12 medals but the bar has been set high by the para-athletes as they return home with a staggering tally of 19. In fact, India had only 19 athletes at the Rio Paralympics where they won 4 medals.
A lot was expected of India’s largest contingent at the Paralympics — a 54 strong unit — and the para-athletes lived up to the hype, winning medals at will in Tokyo.
It all started with a table tennis medal with Bhavinaben Patel becoming the first Indian to win a table tennis medal at the Paralympics. It ended with two badminton players winning medals as Krishna Nagar won a historic gold in the men’s singles SH6 category and Suhas Yathiraj, an IAS officer, winning silver in the SL4 category.
There were multiple medalists as well for India as Avani Lekhara won a gold medal and a bronze medal in shooting while Singhraj took silver and bronze in the shooting. Notably, Avani will be India’s flag-bearer at the Tokyo Paralympics closing ceremony on Sunday after having become the first woman gold medalist at the Paralympics or Olympics history.
Full list of India’s medalists from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics
- Avani Lekhara – Gold – Women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1
- Pramod Bhagat – Gold – Men’s singles SL3 badminton
- Krishna Nagar – Gold – Men’s singles SH6 badminton
- Sumit Antil – Gold – Men’s Javelin Throw F64
- Manish Narwal – Gold – Mixed 50m Pistol SH1
- Bhavinaben Patel – Silver – Women’s Singles Class 4 Table Tennis
- Singhraj – Silver – Mixed 50m Pistol SH1
- Yogesh Kathuniya – Silver – Men’s Discus F56
- Nishad Kumar – Silver – Men’s High Jump T47
- Mariyappan Thangavelu – Silver – Men’s High Jump T63
- Praveen Kumar – Silver – Men’s High Jump T64
- Devendra Jhajharia – Silver – Men’s Javelin F46
- Suhas Yathiraj – Silver – Men’s Singles Badminton SL4
- Avani Lekhara – Bronze – Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1
- Harvinder Singh – Bronze – Men’s Individual Recurve Archery
- Sharad Kumar- Bronze – Men’s High Jump T63
- Sundar Singh Gurjar -Bronze- Men’s Javelin Throw F46
- Manoj Sarkar – Bronze – Men’s Singles Badminton SL3
- Singhraj – Bronze – Men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1
Sport-wise tally of India’s medals at Tokyo Paralympics
- Athletics – 8
- Shooting – 5
- Badminton – 4
- Archery – 1
- Table Tenni – 1
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- India won only 12 medals from 1968 to 2016, return home with 19 from Tokyo Paralympics
- India won as many as 5 gold medals to finish inside the top 25 in the medal table
- India won 8 medals in athletics, 5 medals in shooting, 4 medals in badminton at the Tokyo Paralympics
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Deshapaka Narendhar