Paris/Château. Indian badminton player Manisha Ramdas entered the women’s singles semi-finals in the SU5 category at the Paralympic Games here on Sunday where she will face compatriot Tulsimati Murugesan, ensuring India a medal in the event but star shooter Avani Lekhara failed to repeat her medal-winning feat.
Manisha had a deformity in her right hand since birth. The 19-year-old player had no trouble defeating Japan’s Mamiko Toyoda 21-13 21-16 in the quarter-finals. The second seeded Indian player knocked out her unseeded opponent in just 30 minutes. In the last four, Manisha will face top seed Tulsimati, who defeated Portugal’s Beatriz Monteiro in Group A on Saturday.
In the men’s singles semi-finals in the SL4 category, two Indian players Suhas Yatiraj and Sukant Kadam will face each other. In this way, both of them had confirmed India’s first medal in badminton. Earlier, Mandeep Kaur and Palak Kohli failed to advance beyond the quarter-finals. Playing in the SL3 category, Mandeep could not pose any challenge to third seed Bolaji Mariam Eniola of Nigeria and lost the match 8-21, 9-21 in 23 minutes.
This is Mandeep’s second consecutive defeat against Eniola. Earlier, she had also lost to the Nigerian player in the group stage.
In the SL4 category, Para World Championship bronze medallist Palak lost to Indonesia’s Khalimatus Saadiah 19-21, 15-21 in 28 minutes. Later in the day, Nitya Sivan Sumati will challenge in the quarter-finals of the SH6 category. She will face Poland’s Olivia Szmigil. In the men’s singles semi-finals of the SL3 category, Nitesh Kumar will face Japan’s Daisuke Fujihara.
Failure to aim:
After winning four medals in two days, there was disappointment for India at the shooting range as Avni finished 11th in the mixed 10m air rifle prone (SH1) event while Siddharth Babu finished 28th and thus failed to qualify for the final.
Sriharsha Devareddy Ramakrishna finished 26th with a total score of 630.2 in the mixed 10m air rifle prone (SH2) qualification.
Avni could not repeat her historic gold medal-winning performance in the 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 and despite a good start, failed to make it to the final with a total score of 628.8 points. Siddharth scored 628.3.
Avani’s score in the six series was 105.7, 106.0, 104.1, 106.0, 104.8, 106.2, while Sidharth’s score was 104.6, 103.8, 105.7, 104.9, 103.6, 105.7.
Avni won the gold medal in the women’s 10m air rifle (SH1) event on Friday. She became the first Indian woman athlete to win a gold medal in two consecutive Paralympics. She defended her title with a world record.
In SH1, players can hold the gun without any difficulty and can aim while standing or sitting. In Series 1, 44-year-old Devardi scored 105.2 points and then 105.7 points in the next series. After this, he performed disappointingly with scores of 105.4, 104.3, 105.6 and 104.0 points.
An accident 11 years ago left him with limited control over his limbs. Born in Dharwad in 1980, Devareddy currently lives in Hubli with his wife, son and parents. His bike overturned on a gravel road and following the accident, he suffered severe spinal cord injuries and despite surgery, he lost control of both his hands and legs.
Struggles in track and field:
India’s Ravi Rongali finished fifth in the men’s F40 shot put final on the third day of athletics competitions while Rakshitha Raju was eliminated in the early rounds of the women’s 1500m T11 race. Ravi, who won a silver medal at the Asian Para Games in China last year, performed a personal best of 10.63 meters. However, his performance could only get him fifth place. World record holder Miguel Monteiro of Portugal won the gold medal with 11.21 meters while Battulga Tsegmid (11.09 meters) of Mongolia won the bronze medal.
Reigning Asian Para Games champion Garrah Tanaiyash of Iraq won the bronze medal with a throw of 11.03m, while Tokyo Paralympics gold medallist and reigning world para athletics champion Denis Gnezdilov of Russia finished fourth with 10.80m. He is competing as a neutral athlete at the Paris Paralympics. The F40 category is for short stature players.
Earlier, 23-year-old Rakshitha finished last among four runners in heat three with a timing of five minutes 29.92 seconds.
The top two finishers in each of the three heats qualified for the final. China’s Shanshan He topped Rakshita’s heat with a time of four minutes 44.66 seconds, while South Africa’s Loujain Coetzee finished second with her season’s best effort of four minutes 45.25 seconds. The T11 category is for visually impaired athletes. In this, athletes compete with the help of a guide.
The struggle of the sailors continued: Asian Para Games silver medallist Narayan Konganapalle and Anitha finished eighth in PR3 mixed double sculls rowing. The Indian pair, making their Paralympic debut, finished second in their repechage event Final B with a time of 8 minutes 16.96 seconds. The Final B event was held to determine the position in which the competition was for seventh to 12th positions.
Rakesh shines in archery: World number one para archer Rakesh Kumar made a comeback from his last arrow error and entered the quarter-finals of the Paralympics for the second consecutive time by defeating Indonesia’s Ken Swagumilang in a shoot-off in the compound men’s open category. In the competition between the world’s top two archers, Rakesh maintained a slight lead of one point and needed a nine-point shot to win. But he shot in the eight-point ring. With this, both the archers were tied at 144-144 after 15 arrows. 39-year-old veteran Rakesh, who was eliminated from the quarter-finals in the Tokyo Paralympics, maintained his composure to hit a perfect 10 shots in the shoot-off that followed, while Kane could only hit an eight-point shot.