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India is having a Paralympics to remember this year. While they have already breached the double-digit mark in the medal tally for the first time ever, the Indian contingent is in no mood for stopping and has added two medals on Friday already. To start off, it was Praveen Kumar who bagged a silver medal in the Men's High Jump T64.
Praveen cleared 1.83 metres in his first attempt and gave the 1.93 meters attempt a pass. He returned for the second attempt and cleared the distance of 1.97 meters. This placed him joint top along with Britain's Jonathan Edwards and Poland's Maciej Lepiato.
The three of them cleared the 2.01 meters mark which made for a tight fight for the top podium spot. Praveen then entered into a tie-breaking jump with the Polish athlete and cleared a distance of 2.04 meters. Lepiato also cleared the distance and later Britain's Jonathan also cleared the mark.
Praveen then went into a tie-breaking jump with the Polish para-athlete and efficiently cleared a distance of 2.04 meters. Lepiato also cleared the distance, going joint top with Praveen. Britain's Jonathan also successfully cleared the 2.04 meters mark to produced a neck-to-neck fight for gold. The battle went neck and neck till 2.10 metre mark which Praveen failed to clear in the end, settling for silver.
Historic achievement for Avani Lekhara
Later, India's Avani Lekhara clinched her second medal at the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics by winning aa bronze in women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions (SH1) event. She had earlier become the first Indian woman to win gold at the Paralympics by finishing top of the podium in the women's 10m Air Rifle Standing (SH1) event. And has now shattered several records by becoming the first Indian Women to win 2 Paralympics medals.
The Indian shooter made a brilliant comeback after slipping to the sixth position after six series. She also became only the fourth Indian after Joginder Singh Bedi, Mariyappan Thangavelu and Devendra Jhajharia to win multiple medals at the Paralympics. The country now has a total of 12 medals - 6 silver, 4 bronze and 2 gold medals and is ranked 36th in the medals tally.