India Finishes Tokyo Paralympics Campaign on a High With 19 Medals

India’s ends its Paralympic campaign with record highest 19 medals from Tokyo today. On the ultimate day of the quadrennial event, shuttler Krishan Nagar won another gold medal taking the number of yellow metals for India to 5. In addition to the 5 golds, India’s para-athletes won 8 silver and 6 bronze medals, mostly in individual categories, as the country finished at 24th position.

Para-badminton player Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj settled for silver medal after going down against top seed Lucas Mazur of France in the final match of the Men’s Singles SL4 Class. Yathiraj who is an IAS officer and currently, posted as District Magistrate of Goutam Buddha Nagar (Noida) lost the match by 21-15, 17-21, 15-21 sets.

Shuttler Krishna Nagar defeated Hong Kong’s Chu Man Kai in 21-17, 16-21, 21-17 sets in the Men’s Singles SH1 event to clinch India’s fifth gold medal at Tokyo Paralympics.

India started taking part in Paralympics in 1968 and till Rio Paralympics in 2016, India’s total medal count was a meagre 12. India’s best tally in one edition had come in 2016 and 1984 with four medals each. This has been the best ever Paralympics outing for India. Shooters Avani Lekhara and Manish Narwal, shuttlers Pramod Bhagat and Krishna Nagar, Javelin thrower Sumit Antil won gold medals in this year’s Paralympics for India.