Indian shooter Manish Narwal won a silver medal in the men’s 10m air pistol (SH1) competition at the Chateauroux International Shooting Range on Friday. The 22-year-old finished the final with a total of 234.9 points, adding a fourth medal to India’s tally.
He was in the lead for a while before slipping due to a series of poor scores, allowing veteran South Korean marksman Jo Jeongdu to take the lead. In the SH1 class, athletes can easily hold their guns and shoot from a wheelchair or chair in a standing or sitting position.
Narwal qualified for the final with a fifth-place finish, scoring 565 points. His compatriot Rudransh Khandelwal missed out on a medal round spot, finishing ninth with 561 points, just one point behind Uzbekistan’s Server Ibragimov who took the last qualification spot.
Narwal, who won gold in the Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 event at the Tokyo Paralympics, overcame a slow start to stay in the running for a medal. The final took place at 5:30 pm IST on Friday.
Earlier, Avani Lekhara won gold and Mona Agarwal won bronze in the women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1, kicking off India’s medal count in the Paris Paralympics.
Avani became the first Indian para-athlete to win gold in back-to-back Paralympic Games, breaking her own record with 249.7 points to set a new Paralympic record. Javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia is the first Indian to win two gold medals in the Paralympics, winning in 2004 and 2016.
Mona, who briefly led the standings in the final, finished third with a total of 228.7 points to win a bronze medal and add to India’s medal count in the games.
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