That’s it from us tonight! Do join us tomorrow for another exciting day from the Paris Paralympics!
Rubina Francis was the lone bright spot for India on a day of heartbreaks and disappointments.
The 25-year-old won India’s fifth medal at the Games when she won bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol SH1 event.
There were high hopes for a medal in archery today but both Sarita and Sheetal Devi exited without securing a medal in the women’s individual compound event. While Sarita lost in the quarter-finals to the eventual champion Oznur Girdi Cure, Sheetal lost to Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Mariana Zuniga in the round of 16.
The biggest loss of the day came in badminton where defending champion Krishna Nagar was knocked out of the men’s singles SH6 event without winning a game.
The night ended with another loss as Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan and Sivarajan Solaimalai lost in the semi-finals of the mixed doubles SH6 event.
Badminton, mixed doubles SH6: Heartbreak for Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan and Sivarajan Solaimalai as they lose to the USA’s Jayci Simon and Miles Krajewski 21-17, 14-21, 13-21. The Americans crucially took the lead at the midway point and had the favourable side to play in in the second half. The Indians threatened to mount a comeback but Simon and Krajewski were solid in their defence.
The Indians will now play the Indonesian pair of Subhan and Rina Marlina in the bronze medal match on Monday.
Badminton, mixed doubles SH6: Simon and Krajewski win the second game 21-14 and force a decider in this semi-final match. The Americans were the better pair this game as they exploited the empty spaces left by Nithya Sre and Sivarajan with ease. The Indians need to move better and anticipate the Americans’ set ups.
Badminton, mixed doubles SH6: Superb play from both pairs but is the Indian team of Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan and Sivarajan Solaimalai who take the lead in the semi-final. At the start it looked like the Indians would run away with the game as they took an 11-5 lead at the break. However, Miles Krajewski and Jayci Simon fought back to level the scores. The Indians would open up a lead only for the Americans to eat into it. Nithya Sre and Sivarajan control the rallies towards the end to win the first game 21-17.
Athletics, men’s javelin throw F57 final: Parveen Kumar finishes eighth in the final with a best throw of 42.12 which came from his fourth attempt.
Athletics, men’s javelin throw F57 final: Parveen is ranked eighth after three attempts with his best throw so far being 41.91m from his second attempt.
Athletics, men’s javelin throw F57 final: Parveen Kumar will shortly be in action in the men’s F57 javelin throw final. As it is a seated event, athletes go through all of their six attempts at one go. Kumar has had to wait for a long time for his turn as he is the last of 11 throwers in the final. The Indian faces a tough task to claim a medal with the top three spots held by throwers who threw around the 49-50m mark. Kumar’s personal best is 42.87m.
Badminton, men’s singles SH6: Defending champion Krishna Nagar has been knocked out of the men’s singles SH6 event! Having lost his first group match to Miles Krajewski, Nagar had to beat Meechai Natthapong in straight games today to qualify for the quarter-final. However, he lost a close first game 20-22. He then trailed 3-11 in the second game before he retired from the match handing Natthapong the win.
Badminton, women’s singles SH6: Top seed Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan finishes her group stage campaign with a tough 20-22, 18-21 loss to China’s Lin Shuangbao. Both shuttlers had secured their place in the quarter-finals after winning their respective first two matches. Shunagbao advances as the group winner with Nithya Sre in second.
Badminton, men’s singles SH6: Sivarajan Solaimalai’s highly entertaining campaign comes to an end as he loses his final group match against Krysten Coombs. Having lost his previous two matches, Sivarajan had to secure a straight-games win to qualify for the quarter-finals. However, he succumbs to a 12-21, 10-21 loss.
Sivarajan will be back on the court in a few hours time for the mixed doubles SH6 semi-final match. Sivarajan and Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan take on the American pair of Miles Krajewski and Jayci Simon.
Archery, women’s individual compound open quarter-final: In the end, the late surge from Sarita doesn’t prove fruitful as she bows out of the competition with a 140-145 loss to top seed and world champion Oznur Cure. The Turkish archer set a new world record in the qualification and was just one point away from the Paralympic record in the quarter-final.
Archery, women’s individual compound open quarter-final: Sarita puts the pressure on Cure with a perfect set of 30, but the Turkish archer is equal to the challenge and leads 116-112 with one more end to go.
Archery, women’s individual compound open quarter-final: Much better from Sarita who shoots her first 10 of the match, but there’s still work to do as the Indian continues to trail 82-86 after three ends.
Archery, women’s individual compound open quarter-final: A trio of 9s from Sarita, but Cure shoots a perfect 30 and maintains her lead after two ends.
Archery, women’s individual compound open quarter-final: Sarita begins her quarter-final against top seed and world champion Oznur Cure trailing 26-28 after the first end.
Archery, women’s individual compound open round of 16: A brilliant second arrow that hits dead centre is not enough for Sheetal Devi who shoots two 8s and bows out of the individual competition with a 137-138 loss to Tokyo Paralympics silver medallist Mariana Zuniga.
Solid effort from the 17-year-old archer who definitely has a lot of competitions in her future.
Archery, women’s individual compound open round of 16: It’s neck-to-neck stuff here at Les Invalides as Sheetal and Zuniga both shoot two 10s and a 9 to make the score tied at 111-all with one more end to go.
Archery, women’s individual compound open round of 16: A better end from Sheetal here, but the Chilean archer keeps pace with her and the score is tied at 73-all after three ends.
Archery, women’s individual compound open round of 16: Sheetal Devi gets off to a good start by leading 29-28 after the first end, but falters in the second end with a wild 7 in her second arrow to level the score at 55-all after two ends against her Chilean opponent Mariana Zuniga.
Badminton, men’s singles SL4: Good news for India with the line-up for the semi-finals being posted showing the first semi-final on Sunday being Sukant Kadam against compatriot Suhas Yathiraj. This means that a medal will be assured for India irrespective of who out of Kadam or Yathiraj reaches the final.
Archery, women’s individual compound open round of 16: Sarita moves into the quarter-final! She was comfortably ahead into the final end and began with a 9 and a 10. She only needed to get her arrow on the target with her final arrow and that is when she comes up with her first and only score below 9 in the match. No need to exert herself with victory ensured. She secures a 141-135 win and moves into the last eight.
Sarti comes over and gives a long hug to Sarita. Lovely to watch.
Archery, women’s individual compound open round of 16: Sarita extends her lead in the fourth end to six points as she shoots 29 to Sarti’s 27. Just one end left and this is Sarita’s match to lose
Archery, women’s individual compound open round of 16: Sarita with a close 9 which might be check later on. Sarti shoots 29 while Sarita shoots 28. Will the first 9, which landed very close to the line, by raised to a 10? No, it stays a 9. Sarita leads 85-81.
Archery, women’s individual compound open round of 16: Sarita shoots 28 in the second end and stays ahead. The Indian leads 57-52.
Archery, women’s individual compound open round of 16: Sarita takes the lead after the first end. 29 out of 30 from the Indian as Sarti shoots 24.
Archery, women’s individual compound open round of 16: India can end the night with two medals in archery as Sarita and Sheetal Devi take to the field. World No 4 Sarita will be up first in the round of 16 as she takes on Italy’s Eleonora Sarti.
Shooting, P2 – women’s 10m air pistol SH1: Rubina Francis clinches bronze medal! The 25-year-old was second but shot a 9.2 and an 8.9 in the eighth series and drops to third. Rather than be disappointed by missing out on a silver, Rubina is overjoyed by winning the bronze. Three years ago, she finished seventh in the final. Today, she goes back as a Paralympics bronze medallist!
Shooting, P2 – women’s 10m air pistol SH1: Rubina Francis assures herself of a medal! She climbs to second with a 9.5 and a 9.8! She has a 0.3 point lead over the third placed shooter.
Shooting, P2 – women’s 10m air pistol SH1: A 9.2 and 10.1 from Rubina from her 17th and 18th shots as she extends her lead over the fourth-placed shooter by 1.7 point. The next series will decide the podium.
Shooting, P2 – women’s 10m air pistol SH1: Rubina is gifted the third place as the Turkish shooter comes up with a low 7.5 with her 15th shot. Rubina finally gets her first 10 in nine shots as she shoots 10.4 with her 16th shot. That sees her climb to third but the gap behind is just 0.4.
Shooting, P2 – women’s 10m air pistol SH1: Rubina drops to fourth with an 8.7 with her 13th shot with the gap to the third-placed shooter ahead by 1.3 points. She then gets a 9.8 with her 14th shot as the gap stays the same. Rubina hasn’t shot a 10 since her seventh shot. The 25-year-old needs to find her range quickly.
Shooting, P2 – women’s 10m air pistol SH1: No 10s from Rubina as she shoots 8.9 and 9.3 and sees the gap to the second-placed shooter grow to 0.9 point.
Shooting, P2 – women’s 10m air pistol SH1: A drop in scores for Rubina as she begins with a low 8.4 in the second series. It’s just a solitary 10 in the second series for Rubina as she drops to third and trails the first and second shooters by 1.9 points and 0.6 point respectively.
Shooting, P2 – women’s 10m air pistol SH1: A good start from Rubina in the final as she shoots 10.7, 10.3 and 10.3 with her first three shots. But she drops a 9.7 and a 9 with her final two shots. The Indian is second and is just 0.1 behind the leader.
Shooting, P2 – women’s 10m air pistol SH1: It’s time for the women’s 10m air pistol SH1 final where Rubina Francis has the opportunity to win India’s fifth medal in Paris. The world No 7 Francis will be looking to finish on the podium this time around after finishing seventh at Tokyo 2020.
Shooting, P2 – women’s 10m air pistol SH1: Rubina Francis qualifies for the final of the women’s 10m air pistol event! She had a poor start to the qualification round shooting 90 points each in the first two series and was ranked 13th. However, scores 95, 92, 95, 95 and 94 in the next four series helped Rubina finish seventh and qualify for the final which will take place at 6.15 pm today.
Badminton, women’s singles SU5: Second seed Manisha Ramdass finishes second in group C after losing to China’s Yang Qiu Xia 15-21, 7-21. Both players had qualified for the quarter-finals before their match had taken place. Had Ramdass won the match, she would have likely received a bye in the quarter-finals.
Badminton, men’s singles SL4: India won’t have three men in the men’s singles SL4 semi-finals! In a winner-takes-all match, Tarun loses 7-21, 16-21 to Frenchman Lucas Mazur.
Badminton, men’s singles SL4: Sukant Kadam joins compatriot Suhas Yathiraj in the semi-finals of the men’s singles SL4 event. Kadam beat Thailand’s Siripong Teammarom 21-12, 21-12 to make it two wins out of two in Group B and qualify for the semi-finals.
Rowing, PR3 Mixed Doubles: Anita and Narayana Konganapalle finish third in the repechage race with a time of 7:54.33 minutes. With only the top two qualifying for the medal race, the Indians will race in the B final for rankings.
Badminton, men’s singles SL3: Manoj Sarkar ends his Paris Paralympic campaign with a win in his final men’s singles SL3 group A game. Sarkar and his opponent Yang Jianyuan were out of semi-final contention going into the match. Sarkar notches a 21-15, 21-11 win.
Cycling track, men’s C1-3 1000m time trial qualifying: Arshad Shaik finishes last in the event with a factored time of 1:21.416.
Badminton, men’s singles SL3: A solid performance from Nitesh Kumar sees the Indian shuttler top Group A and qualify for the semi-finals after a 21-13, 21-14 win against Thailand’s Mongkhon Bunsun.
Shooting, R1 – men’s 10m standing SH1 qualification: It was a slow start for Swaroop Unhalkar and unfortunately, he was unable to recover and finishes in 14th place with a score of 613.4 points.
Cycling track, women’s C1-3 500m time trial qualifying: Jyoti Gaderiya finished in 11th place with a timing of 52.098 and fails to qualify for the final.
Shooting, R1 – men’s 10m standing SH1 qualification: Swaroop Unhalkar is currently in action in the qualification round and will hope to emulate the feats of Lekhara, Agarwal and Narwal from yesterday in qualifying for the final and winning a medal.
Badminton, women’s singles SL3: Mandeep Kaur secures a spot in the quarter-finals with a 21-23, 21-10, 21-17 win over Australia’s Celine Aurelie Vinot in her final group B match.
Shahid Judge was awarded the first prize in the ‘Best Article’ category at the 2024 ICRC PII awards for his story on para archer Sheetal Devi.
You can read the story .
India is currently 17th in the overall medal tally with one gold, one silver and two bronze medals.
Hello and welcome to Scroll’s coverage of Day 3 of the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games
It was a hugely successful day for India in Paris as the country opened their medal tally with one gold, one silver and two bronze medals across shooting and athletics.
Avani Lekhara defended her Paralympic title in the women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 event with Mona Agarwal taking bronze. Preethi Pal became the first Indian to win a track medal at a Paralympics edition when she took bronze in the women’s 100m T35 event.
On Saturday, there are more chances for India to add to their medals with the likes of Swaroop Unhalkar and Rubina Francis in contention for a spot in the final in their respective individual shooting events.
Parveen Kumar will also hope to put India on the podium when he competes in the men’s javelin throw F57 final.
Aside from that, the Indian shuttlers and archers will continue their charge in their respective individual campaigns in the hopes of winning a medal.
