Sports

Congratulations Manish Narwal and Pramod Bhagat: You have made India Gold and Proud!

By alagu, 04 September, 2021
Paralympics, Olympics, Tokyo Olympics 2021, India

It's 'Historiclympics' for India in Tokyo and the ongoing Paralympics has become a turning point for India's history of Paralympics as the Indian contingent of the para-athletes in the Japanese capital has been making the country gold and proud. In what has become a historical feat, India has won two Gold medals on Saturday and the players' medal battle has been pouring weight into what has already become an impressive milestone. 

On Saturday, shooter Manish Narwal has carved a feat to win India's third Gold medal in the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics. 19-year-old Narwal already holds a world record in the P4 Mixed 50m Pistol category and he shot a total of 218.2 to secure the Gold medal. It was his debut Paralympics and while he stood top of the medal podium, his compatriot, fellow Indian shooter Singhraj Adana has won the Silver medal in the same category, which has become India's seventh silver medal in the ongoing games. Russian Paralympic Committee's Sergey Malyshev has won the Bronze medal. 

Narwal is a native of Haryana and initially, he dreamt of becoming a footballer. However, a congenital ailment in his right hand spoiled his dream and his father Dilbagh Narwal was determined that the junior Narwal should excel in sports and according to reports, his family took him to a shooting range in 2016 and from there, he developed his interest in the shooting and began practising. His talent was noted by coach Jai Prakash Nautiyal and Narwal won individual gold in the P1 Air Pistol SH1 event in the 2017 Bangkok World Cup. 

Narwal is supported by GoSports Foundation and he already had won several medals in national and international events. He made his debut in Paralympics in the ongoing games and scripted his debut to be glorious on the world stage. After winning the Gold, he said he was very happy and through the historical triumph, Narwal has become the second youngest-ever to win Gold for India after 19-year-old shooter Avani Lekhara won the Gold in the same season and Lekhara is one month young than Narwal. 

While Narwal won the Gold, 39-year-old Adana, who had won the Bronze in the P1 men's 10m air pistol SH1 event on Tuesday, has added a Silver medal to his record on Saturday. Through this incredible milestone, Adana has joined the list of Indians who had won multiple medals in the same season. Avani Lekhara was the first Indian gold-medal winner in the ongoing season and days after Lekhara, Sumit Antil has won the second gold for the country in the Men's javelin throw, and after Antil, Manish Narwal has won the third gold for the country in shooting on Saturday. 

Hold on! India's gold hunt isn't over as badminton player Pramod Bhagat has won Gold on Saturday evening and when India won two Gold medals in one day, the country had risen high to a new dawn. Thanks to the aplomb of the athletes who had never lost their grit in making the country proud. Pramod Bhagat, who was the defending world champion, has won a historic badminton gold medal in men's singles SL3 class after defeating Britain's Daniel Bethell as India has been in a rain of medals.

What is more significant is Badminton has made its debut in Paralympics in the ongoing games and India has recorded a golden opening with Bhagat becoming the first Indian to win the Gold medal in Badminton in Paralympics. 33-year-old Bhagat, who is a native of Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, has been affected with polio since he was four years old and developed an interest in sports after watching his neighbours play. In the beginning, he had competed against able-bodied players and in 2006, he has got into competitive para-badminton. 

He went on to become one of India finest players and he had won 45 international medals so far, including four world championship gold medals and a gold and a bronze in the 2018 Asian Para games. For this medal king, Paralympics is not something invincible and he proved it by winning the Gold medal in his debut and the debut of the game. Bhagat had been a badminton coach and he had taken a break in 2019 to focus on the Tokyo Paralympics qualification. In 2019, Bhagat was conferred with the Arjuna Award and Biju Patnaik Award for Excellence in Sports in India. 

On Saturday, India's Manoj Sarkar, who is the current World no 1 Para-badminton player in the SL-3 classification, has won the Bronze medal by defeating Japan's Daisuke Fujihara. India has won four medals- two Golds, one Silver, and one Bronze, in a single day as the country's medal tally has been surging high. India currently stands at the 26th spot in the medal table with a total of 17 medals - four Golds, seven Silvers, and six Bronzes. The current magnificent contingent of Indian para-athletes had made the ongoing season as the best Paralympics ever in the history of India in terms of medals. 

Before the current season, India has won only four Gold medals in the last five seasons till the 2016 Rio Paralympics - Murlikant Petkar (Gold in 1972), Devendra Jhajharia (Gold in 2004), Mariyappan Thangavelu (Gold in 2016), and Devendra Jhajharia (Gold in 2016) and India's medal tally has never crossed five in these last five seasons. However, in the current season, the Indian athletes had answered to the world that India will strike back successfully by winning four Golds so far and 17 medals so far in a single season. India has been counting its medals and the games are still on the floor, so we can expect more and more medals around India's neck. Congratulations to the entire fleet of para-athletes for making Gold and proud through your glorious milestones and a big salute for creating history. 

 

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