Chateauroux (France): India’s Manish Narwal clinched a silver medal in the men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1 with a score of 234.9 to take the country’s medal tally to four in the ongoing Paris Paralympics on Friday. Narwal finished behind South Korea’s Jeongdu Jo, who won the gold with a total of 237.4 while China’s Chao Yang claimed the bronze with a score of 214.3.
The 22-year-old, who bagged a gold in the Mixed 50m Pistol event in the Tokyo Paralympics, held the first spot in the final after an initial round of shots in stage 2 but eventually lost his lead to Jeongdu to finish second.
It is India’s third medal of the day in shooting after Avani Lekhara and Mona Agarwal won the gold and bronze respectively in the women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1. Mona won the first medal for the country in the Paris Paralympics on his debut in the Games.
In the final, Avani bettered her previous record set in the Tokyo Games to finish at the top in the eight-player competition. She finished with a total of 249.7 to achieve the new Paralympic record in the category. Her previous best was 249.6 in the Tokyo Paralympics.
On the other hand, Mona, who was briefly leading the final round of shots, finished third with a total of 228.7 to win a bronze medal in the event and also opened the country’s medal count in the Games.
Earlier, Preeti Pal’s bronze in the women’s 100m – T35 added a third medal to India’s tally after she achieved her personal best timing of 14.21 seconds to finish third in the final at Stade de France. China’s world record-holder Zhou Xia won gold in 13.58 seconds while her compatriot Guo Qianqian took silver in 13.74 seconds.
–IANS