Paris Paralympics 2024: India opens medal tally with air rifle shooting gold for Avani Lekhara, Mona Agarwal gets bronze

India opened its Paris Paralympics 2024 medal tally on 30 August with Avani Lekhara securing a historic gold in the women's 10m air rifle standing SH1. Mona Agarwal continued the momentum on Day 1 with a bronze medal. Apart from this India's Preeti Pal also win bronze medal in the Women's 100m T35 event. 

Lekhara surpassed her own Paralympic record with a final score of 249.7, which is better than her previous Tokyo Paralympics record of 249.6.

With this medal, Lekhara became the first Indian woman to clinch two Paralympic gold medals. In 2020, she became the first woman shooter from the country to win medals in shooting at the Tokyo Paralympics. Apart from this, Lekahra also won a bronze in the 50m rifle 3 positions.

According to details, the SH1 category in shooting is related to athletes who have movement affected in their arms, lower trunk, and legs or have no limbs, reported Hindustan Times.

Earlier in the final round on Friday, Lekhara faced a significant drop in the shoot-out for the gold, when her penultimate shot, a 9.9, temporarily dropped her to second place behind Korea’s Yunri Lee.

But she bounced back with her final shot of 10.5. It was worth waiting to see how Korea's Lee would perform. The latter delivered a disappointing 6.8, allowing Lekhara to clinch the gold by a significant margin of 1.9.

Mona Agarwal wins bronze:

Apart from Lekhara, India's Mona Agarwal also shone at the Paris Paralympics as she secured a bronze medal. Her final score was 228.7, but not enough to surpass Yunri lee.

She was on the top after 20 shots with a score of 208.1, but her final 22nd shot ended her campaign when she scored just 10.0 and had to be satisfied with a bronze.

India have sent a 179-strong member contingent, largest ever in the nation's Paralympic history, features 84 athletes in 12 different sports.

With agency inputs.