Tokyo Paralympics: Avani Lekhara creates history, wins gold for India in para shooting

India's Avani Lekhara on Monday made history by becoming the first woman from India to win a Paralympics gold medal. Competing in the Women's 10m Air Rifle SH1 event, she won the gold medal with a score of 249.6 equalling the world record and Paralympic record.  The second place went to China's Zhang C, while the third place went to Iryna Shchetnik of Ukraine. This is India's fourth medal at the Tokyo Paralympic Games so far. Iryna Shchetnik holds the World Record of 249.6 points. Avani's Paralympic record surpasses Slovakia's Veronika Vadovičová score of 207.8, which came up during the Rio Olympics 2016.

Tokyo Paralympics: Avani Lekhara wins gold in Women's 10m Air Rifle SH1

Lekhara qualified for the final finishing 7th in the qualification round with a total score of 621.7. Avani after a slow start made up ground and went on to advance to the finals of the showpiece event. She registered good scores of 104.9, 104.8 in her third and fourth attempt to be in contention for the medal before scoring 104.1 in the final round of qualification. 

In the finals, the Lekhara started out with a score of 52.0, 51.3 and 21.6 in the first three shots. She continued to keep hold of the lead by shooting 20.8, 21.2 and 20.9 in the next three shots. In the last three shots, Lekhara shot 21.2, 20.1 and 20.5 to confirm the Gold Medal for India. 

Tokyo Paralympics: Other medal winners for India so far

Apart from Avani Lekhara on Sunday, India's para table tennis player Bhavina won silver as she lost the gold medal match to China's Zhou Ying 3-0 in the women's singles - Class 4.  With the silver medal, Bhavina became the first table tennis player ever to win a medal at the Paralympics for India and the second female athlete after PCI chief Deepa Malik to achieve this feat. Malik had won silver at Rio 2016 in women's shot put.

 Nishad Kumar on Sunday clinched a silver medal in the final event of the High Jump T47 category. Nishadclinched silver with a high jump of 2.09m and also the Asian Record set by him in 2021. The win also ensured India's first athletics medal in the Tokyo Paralympic Games. Discus thrower Vinod Kumar won the bronze medal after throwing a 19.91m throw in the F52 event, however, his medal has been put on hold for now with results being under review.