New Delhi [India], September 10 : India's para-archery gold medalist at Paris Paralympics 2024, Harvinder Singh, said on Tuesday that he feels "double the happiness" after winning the historic medal.
Singh secured a historic gold medal for the country at the Paralympics on Wednesday, becoming the first-ever Indian to win a medal in the sport across both the Olympics and Paralympics. In the gold medal clash of the individual recurve para-archery against Poland's Lukasz Ciszek, Harvinder won 6-0.
He secured a medal in two successive Paralympics, having won a bronze medal in the recurve para-archery at the Tokyo Paralympics 2020.
Speaking to ANI, Harvinder said that while he had won a bronze medal in previous Paralympics, he now realises the worth of a gold medal.
"It feels really great to have won a gold for India. Earlier, I had won a bronze. But today, I realise what the worth of a gold medal is. I feel double the happiness now," he said.
Harvinder said the country's record-breaking medal haul of 29 medals at the Paralympics is a sign of para-sports progress in India.
"In the coming years, we will get to see even more medals. Preparation was nice, players were confident. We lost some finals. The increase in gold medals is a good sign," he added.
The Indian contingent concluded its historic Paris Paralympics campaign with a total of 29 medals, including seven gold, nine silver, and 13 bronze medals, the most by the country in the history of the competition. With this landmark campaign, India has surpassed their previously most-successful campaign at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, which gave them 19 medals, including five golds, eight silvers, and six bronze medals.
This record-haul also helped India cross the 50-medal mark in the history of the competition. A record of 84 para-athletes represented the tricolour from August 28 to Sunday in 12 disciplines, as compared to nine back in Tokyo 2020. India also participated in new sports at Paris: paracycling, para rowing, and blind judo.
India established several records and unlocked some new "firsts" at the Paralympic Games.
A look at India's medalists at the Paris 2024 Paralympics:
-Avani Lekhara (Shooting, Women's 10m air rifle standing SH1, Gold)
-Mona Agarwal (Shooting, Women's 10m air rifle standing SH1, Bronze)
-Preethi Pal (Athletics, Women's 100m T35, Bronze)
-Manish Narwal (Shooting, Men's 10m air pistol SH1, Silver)
-Rubina Francis (Shooting, Women's 10m Air Pistol SH1, Bronze)
-Preethi Pal (Shooting, Women's 10m Air Pistol SH1, Bronze)
-Nishad Kumar (Athletics, Men's high jump T47, Silver)
-Yogesh Kathuniya (Athletics, Men's discus throw F56, Silver)
-Nitesh Kumar (Badminton, Men's singles SL3, Gold)
-Thulasimathi Murugesan (Badminton, Women's singles SU5, Silver)
-Manisha Ramadass (Badminton, Women's singles SU5, Bronze)
-Suhas Yathiraj (Badminton, Men's singles SL4, Silver)
-Rakesh Kumar / Sheetal Devi (Archery, Mixed team compound open, Bronze)
-Sumit Antil (Athletics, Javelin throw F64, Gold)
-Nithya Sre Sivan (Badminton, Women's singles, SH6, Bronze)
-Deepthi Jeevanji (Athletics, Women's 400m T20, Bronze)
-Mariyappan Thangavelu (Athletics, Men's high jump T63, Bronze)
-Sharad Kumar (Athletics, Men's high jump T63, Silver)
-Ajeet Singh (Athletics, Men's javelin throw, F46, Silver)
-Sundar Singh Gurjar (Athletics, Men's javelin throw F46, Bronze)
-Sachin Khilari (Athletics, Men's shot put, F46, Silver)
-Harvinder Singh (Archery, Men's individual recurve open, Gold)
-Dharambir (Athletics, Men's club throw F51, Gold)
-Parnav Soorma (Athletics, Men's club throw F51, Silver)
-Kapil Parmar (Judo, Men's -60kg J1, Bronze)
-Praveen Kumar (Athletics, Men's high jump T64, Gold)
-Hokato Hotozhe Sema (Athletics, Men's shot put F57, Bronze)
-Simran (Athletics, Women's 200m T12, Bronze)
-Navdeep Singh (Athletics, Men's javelin throw F41, Gold).
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