From Praveen’s gold to Hokato’s bronze, the best moments of Day 9 – Firstpost

After three whirlwind days of medals raining down at the Paris Paralympics from Monday to Wednesday, the Indian contingent has been steadily adding medals to its tally.

After Kapil Parmar won a historic bronze medal in judo on Thursday, it was the athletics contingent that gifted the nation a few medals, including a gold, breaking another record.

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The athletics competition also saw some good news as para-sprinter Simran Sharma qualified for another final. The day was also marred by one athlete failing to reach the podium despite her personal best performance.

Here are some key moments from day nine of the Paralympic Games:

Praveen wins gold

The highlight of the day was Praveen Kumar winning gold in the men’s T64 high jump final with a jump of 2.08 metres. American Derek Loccident had originally set the Paralympic record with a jump of 2.06 metres. Praveen not only successfully cleared that height, but he set the bar a few centimetres higher to set a new Games record.

https://twitter.com/JioCinema/status/1832014907753025888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The 21-year-old from Govindgarh near Noida, who was born with a short leg and initially took up volleyball, had won silver in the same event at the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago and improved on his medal haul on Friday. He had also won gold at the Asian Paralympics last year.

Praveen’s gold was India’s sixth at the ongoing Paralympics, surpassing the five they won at Tokyo 2020, their previous highest number of gold medals in a single edition of the Paralympics.

Hokato wins bronze

India managed to win a second medal in their final event on Day 9, with Hokato Hotozhe Sema winning bronze in the men’s shot put F57 category.

The 40-year-old from Dimapur in Nagaland, who was in the Indian Army when he lost his leg in a landmine accident on the Line of Control in 2002, finished third in the event with a throw of 14.65 metres, which was also his personal best.

His bronze medal helped the Indian contingent end the day with 27 medals, taking their bronze medal tally to 12. It was also the 15th medal won by the athletics contingent in Paris.

Sema was not the only Indian competing in the event, however; Soman Rana finished fifth with a throw of 14.07 metres, briefly occupying the bronze medal in the final.

Simran qualifies for another final

More good news was in store for the Indian contingent with para-sprinter Simran Sharma, who has Abhay Singh as her guide at the Paris Games, qualifying for the T12 200m final.

The Ghaziabad native narrowly missed out on the podium in the 100m sprint in the same category, finishing fourth with a time of 12.31 seconds.

Simran topped her heat with a time of 25.41 seconds as well as semi-final 3, in which she recorded a time of 25.03 seconds.

The 24-year-old won gold in the category at the World Championships in Kobe earlier this year and is hoping to add a Paralympic gold medal to her collection on Saturday.

Bhavanaben Chaudhary achieves personal best throw

Meanwhile, in the women’s javelin throw F46 final, Bhavanaben Chaudhary finished fifth with a throw of 39.70 metres, improving her personal best not once but three times in the final.

But that wasn’t enough for Chaudhary to clinch a podium spot as she finished fifth in the event, with the top four clearing the 40-metre mark. Venezuela’s Daniela Naibys Morillo Gil not only won the gold medal, she also broke the Paralympic record with a throw of 43.77 metres in her final attempt.