New Delhi: Simran Sharma battled exhaustion and a stiff back to turn in an inspired performance on way to clinching the women’s 200m T12 silver on a hot and humid evening as India finished their World Para Athletics Championships with a record 22 medals, here Sunday.
On a day of high drama, when India won three silver and a bronze to finish with six gold, nine silver and seven bronze, women’s 100m T35 athlete, Preethi Pal showed mental fortitude in ample measure to win silver after a starter pistol malfunction saw her compete twice in stifling conditions.
Paris Paralympics gold medallist in F41 javelin event Navdeep Singh, favourite to win gold on home turf, also settled for silver as India finished 10th on the medals table — a big disappointment as the hosts could have easily finished fourth had Navdeep and high jumper Praveen Kumar lived up to their top billing.
Men’s 200m T44 athlete Sandeep then unexpectedly won bronze with a personal best time of 23.60 seconds to give India some more reason to celebrate.
Simran takes second medal
Simran was all fired up in the women’s 200m T12 event despite the champion athlete running her sixth sprint race in two days.
The 25-year-old Uttar Pradesh para athlete, who has significant visual limitation and runs with a sighted guide to assist her during her races, added a silver to the 100m T12 gold she won on Friday with an Asian record and personal best time of 24.46 second.
Simran initially finished third behind Venezuela’s Alejandra Perez Lopez, and Brazil’s Clara Barros de Silva (24.42 seconds), but the former was disqualified leading to the Indian moving up to second spot.
Alejandra was disqualified under rule R7.10.4 of the the World Para Athletics (WPA) regulations concerning infractions in events for visually impaired athletes who use a guide runner.
The rule states that “an athlete will be disqualified if they or their guide runner fail to comply with the rules for using a tether.”
Tether is a short cord or band that connects a visually-impaired athlete and their guide, allowing them to run together in sync.
This was Simran’s third World Para Athletics medal. She had won the gold T12 200m gold at the 2024 World in Kobe.
“I am happy that I have won two medals in a home event. I’m all the more satisfied because I broke the Asian record,” said Simran as her guide runner Umar Saifi nodded in unison. Her previous personal best was 24.75 seconds.
“I timed 24.92 seconds in the semifinal in the morning, and shaving off quite a bit from my personal best makes it all the more special. This morning, I was crying because I couldn’t even bend after five races in two days.”
She said she would be targetting three gold medals at the 2026 Asian Para Games in Japan.
“Apart from the 100m and 200m, I will try long jump next year because my coach says I have the speed and I only need to work on my takeoff. I recently jumped 5.42m and my coach felt I can do well in long jump as well,” she added.
Silver ‘twice over’ for Preethi Pal
Women’s 100m T35 sprinter, Preethi Pal had begun her celebrations, draped the tricolour around her, kissed the track and was soaking in the atmosphere when the announcement came that there would be a ‘re-run’ because of the starter pistol malfunction.
The starter pistol went off twice in quick succession but a delay on the part of the organisers led to the goof up.
However, the 25-year-old double Paris Paralympics bronze medallist in T35 category (athletes with coordination impairments like cerebral palsy), returned to the track nearly two hours later to ‘repeat’ the performance, finishing with a season’s best time of 14.33 seconds behind China’s Guo Qianqian (14.24 seconds).
“It’s very difficult (to come back and race again), I felt that I won’t be able to come on the podium. My motivation was very low. But my coach and physio prepared me again. He said, this time you will do well. Now I am relieved,” said Preethi.
“I did feel down (after the first race). All the players were saying, ‘we are very tired… I said, we are going home. We are not doing it.”
On the starter pistol malfunction, she said, “They should have thought about it earlier (stopped the race immediately),” said Preethi, who also had also won the T35 200m bronze here.
Navdeep takes silver in javelin
Javelin thrower Navdeep’s best attempt of 45.46m was only good enough for a silver as Iran’s Sadegh Beit Sayah’s massive 48.86m throw fetched him the gold on Sunday.
The 24-year-old Navdeep seemed to be warming up nicely when his third attempt of 45.46m — his season’s best — put him head and shoulders above the rest of the field, except for Sayah.
However, the Paris Paralympics gold medallist in F41 category (athletes with short stature) could not take his game to the next level as his fourth attempt fetched him 44.87, while he fouled the last two.
Brazil took the top spot on the medals tally with 44 (15-20-9), China was second with 52 medals (13-22-17), while Iran finished third with 16 (9-2-5).
Jury of Appeal reverses decision
The Jury of Appeal on Sunday awarded Brazilian Paulino dos Santos Thiago the silver in men’s shot put F57 final (14.82m) after rejecting an appeal against the thrower. On Saturday, there was speculation that India’s Soman Rana’s bronze could be upgraded to silver.
