Historic heroes

Pramod Bhagat claims maiden gold in badminton for India, while shooter Manish Narwal smashes Games record en route his yellow metal

Shooter Manish Narwal smashed a Games record while shuttler Pramod Bhagat yet again asserted his supremacy with his gold-winning performance as India’s tally swelled to 17 after a four-medal show on a memorable penultimate day at the Tokyo Paralympics, here on Saturday.

Narwal, 19, shot a total of 218.2, a Paralympic record, for gold in P4 Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 event while Bhagat humbled Great Britain’s Daniel Bethell in the men’s singles SL3 class final for a historic yellow metal.

Manish Narwal

India now have four gold, seven silver and six bronze medals to be placed 26th. India had won just four medals in the last edition in Rio while the total count from the 1972 edition when the country competed for the first time till these Tokyo Games was 12.

Sarkar wins bronze

Bhagat claimed the historic gold in the men’s singles SL3 class by beating Great Britain’s Bethell 21-14, 21-17 in the summit clash. 

Manoj Sarkar and Singhraj Adana

Fellow shutter Manoj Sarkar bagged a bronze after defeating Japan’s Daisuke Fujihara in the third place play-off. Sarkar, 31, whose right leg was affected after he contracted polio when was one, displayed resilience during his 22-20, 21-13 win over Fujihara. 

For badminton hero Bhagat, the mental game came to the fore on Saturday. “Technique is not that [important], what is [important] is your brain. You have to execute the right thing at the right time and that is the sportsman spirit, champion spirit. You have to use your brain and if you do, you will definitely get success,” Bhagat told reporters in a virtual interaction.

He chose the moment to pass on a tip to young sportspersons: “Just concentrate on hard work and don’t think about the result. Keep focusing on your dream. Even though I suffered a downfall in 2017, I picked myself up. You will get a lot of hurdles in your journey, you have to cross all those hurdles and one day you will become medallist, an Olympic gold medallist.”

Sarkar, meanwhile, was determination personified. “My target was to win this match at any cost because I knew I was playing in Japan and against a Japanese player. There was pressure, but the positive factor was that I knew my Japanese opponent and had beaten him many times,” he said. Badminton is making its debut at this year’s Paralympics. 

Tarun Dhillon too stayed in contention for a bronze after losing his semi-finals while the duo of Bhagat and Palak Kohli will also feature in the third-place play-off in the mixed SL3-SL5 class. 

More medals are in store for India on the final day [Sunday] with shuttlers Suhas Yathiraj and Krishna Nagar sailing into the men’s singles finals of SL4 class and SH6 class respectively. In SL4 class, Suhas outwitted Indonesia’s Fredy Setiawan 21-9, 21-15 in the first semi-final. Krishna, seeded two, defeated Great Britain’s Krysten Coombs 21-10, 21-11 in the SH6 class semis.

Silver for Adana

Back to shooting. While Narwal smashed the Paralympic record to clinch India’s third gold at Tokyo, compatriot Singhraj Adana bagged the silver to make it a sensational one-two finish for the country. Adana, 39 created a piece of history as he joins the elite list of Indians who have won multiple medals in the same edition of the Games. He won the bronze in the P1 men’s 10m air pistol SH1 event.

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17
The No. of medals (4 gold, 7 silver, 6 bronze) India have won in the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics

With input from PTI

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