Xia Zhou of China celebrates after winning gold with silver medallist Qianqian Guo of China and bronze medallist Preethi Pal of India REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
REUTERS
India's Preethi Pal won a bronze in women's 200m T35 category, her second medal of Paris Paralympics, with a personal best time of 30.01 seconds on Sunday.
The bronze won by the 23-year-old Preethi was also India's second para-athletics medal in the Paris Games.
T35 classification is meant for athletes who have coordination impairments such as hypertonia, ataxia and athetosis.
On Friday, she had clinched India's first athletics medal in a Paralympics track event, winning a bronze in the women's T35 100m competition with a personal best time of 14.21 seconds.
All the athletics medals India had won since the 1984 edition of the Paralympics have come from the field events.
Shuttlers shine
Suhas Yathiraj positioned himself for unprecedented glory by reaching the summit clash for a second consecutive time after fellow shuttler Manisha Ramadass also assured India of a medal but star shooter Avani Lekhara missed out on repeating her medal-winning feat in her pet event here Sunday.
Tokyo Games silver medallist Suhas is set to become the first Indian shuttler to win back-to-back medals at the Paralympics after outplaying compatriot Sukant Kadam in straight games to reach the men's singles SL4 final.
The 41-year-old Suhas, a 2007 batch IAS officer, beat Sukant 21-17, 21-12 to make another final at the global showpiece.
Later, Nitesh Kumar also guaranteed a medal for himself in SL3 with a 21-16 21-12 victory over Japan's Daisuke Fujihara in the semifinal.
Before Suhas sizzled, it was Manisha who set up an all-Indian women's singles SU5 semifinal with compatriot Thulasimathi Murugesan, assuring the country of at least a silver.
The 19-year-old Manisha, who was born with Erb's palsy which affected her right arm, had no trouble in dispatching Japan's Mamiko Toyoda 21-13, 21-16 in the quarterfinals. The second seeded Indian left-hander needed 30 minutes to down her unseeded rival.
In the last four, Manisha will meet top seed Thulasimathi, who had defeated Portugal's Beatriz Monteiro in group A on Saturday.
Shooters draw blank
After the high of four medals in two days, there was disappointment in store for India in the shooting range with Lekhara failing to qualify for the final following a 11th-place finish in the mixed 10m air rifle prone (SH1) qualification in which Sidhartha Babu ended 28th.
In the mixed 10m air rifle prone (SH2) qualification, Sriharsha Devaraddi Ramakrishna ended in 26th place with a total of 630.2.
In the Paralympics mixed event, both men and women compete on the line against each other.
Coming off her historic gold medal in the 10m air rifle standing SH1 event, Lekhara ended the competition with a total of 632.8.
Rakesh in bronze face-off
Rakesh Kumar failed to bring out his A-game against 'nemesis' Ai Xinliang of China to lose 143-145 in the compound men open archery semifinal.
The World No. 1 Rakesh will now fight for a bronze medal.
Others struggle
Ravi Rongali finished a creditable fifth in the men's F40 shot put final while Rakshita Raju bowed out in the opening round heats of women's 1500m T11 race on the third day of athletics competitions.
Rongali, who had won a silver in the Asian Para Games last year in China, produced a personal best of 10.63m but that was not enough in a top-class field.
Earlier, Rakshita, 23, finished last in Heat 3 after clocking 5:29.92s.
