New Delhi: Navdeep Singh’s silver medal in the men’s F41 javelin throw event was upgraded to gold on Saturday night after the Iranian competitor who finished first was disqualified for “unsporting of improper conduct”, after apparently waving a black flag with a message, on the penultimate day of the Paris Paralympics.
Until the drama, which had earned Beit Sayah Sadegh a yellow card during the competition. The final result on the Paralympics website had DQ (disqualified) against his name along with YRC (yellow red card).
Simran Singh took bronze medal in women’s T12 200m as India’s medal count reached 29 (7 gold, 9 silver, 13 bronze) on the penultimate day of the Paris Paralympics on Saturday.
Navdeep’s gold is the fourth javelin medal for India in the current edition and follows Sumit Antil’s gold in F64 category, Ajeet Singh’s silver in men’s F46 class, Sundar Singh Gurjar’s bronze in F46 category. F41 is meant for athletes of short stature.
Navdeep, who had finished fourth at the Tokyo Games three years back with an effort of 40.80m, was in fine form throughout the competition and breached the 45m mark on all his legal attempts. Opening the competition with a foul, Navdeep bounced back with a personal best of 46.39m before smashing the Paralympics record of 47.13m with a throw of 47.32m to put himself in the gold medal contention.
Iran’s Sadegh, however, hurled the spear to 47.64m in his fifth try before the yellow card was shown to him. At that stage, the Indian had two attempts to surpass the Iranian, but managed only 46.05m on his fifth try and fouled his last throw. Following the late drama in the competition, Navdeep’s best throw will be the new Paralympics mark.
“I hadn’t expected such a throw. My target was a little lower. My first throw was a foul and the coach told me it was a very good throw. I was confident of reclaiming the PR after it was broken (by Sadegh) and I tried my best. This silver means a lot. I have won a medal after a while. I was fourth in Tokyo and Hangzhou and really wanted to win a big medal,” Navdeep had said before the medal was upgraded to gold.
“I want to dedicate this medal to my father. He has been an inspiration.”
China’s defending champion and world and Paralympics record holder Sun Pengxiang’s bronze (44.72m) was upgraded to silver and Iraq’s Nukhailawi Wildan took bronze (40.46m).
Hailing from Panipat in Haryana, Navdeep began his sporting pursuit in wrestling and athletics and moved to javelin. He made his international debut at the Asian Youth Para Games in 2017 where he won gold. An under-20 world champion (2019), Navdeep finished fourth at last year’s Hangzhou Asian Para Games before winning the biggest medal of his career.
On the track, India’s Simran Singh took bronze in the women’s T12 (for visually impaired) 200m clocking a personal best time of 24.75secs. Cuba’s Omara Durand Elias took gold in 23.62 secs and Venezuela’s Alejandra Paola Perez Lopez the silver (24.19s). Simran had finished fourth in the T12 100m.
The two medals took India’s track and field tally to 17 (4 gold, 6 silver, and 7 bronze).
Among other competitors, Arshad Sheikh and Jyoti Gaderiya finished 28th and 15th and a lap down in para cycling C1-3 road race men’s and women’s events. In para canoeing, Yash Kumar finished fifth and last in semi-final 1 of men’s kayak single 200m KL1 and failed to make the final. Compatriot Prachi Yadav finished eighth and last in final A of women’s VA’A single 200m VL2.
In para swimming, India’s Suyash Jadhav was fifth in Heat 1 of men’s 50m butterfly F7 and couldn’t make the final.
Late on Friday, Hokato Hotozhe Sema won bronze in the shot put F57 class. With the top two spots sealed early by Iran’s Yasin Khosravi and Brazil’s Thiago Paulino dos Santos, the 40-year-old army man didn’t flinch in his bid for bronze. The man from Dimapur, Nagaland achieved his best result on his fourth attempt, surpassing his personal best of 14.49m.
The only athlete from Nagaland in the 84-member Indian contingent, Sema is the second of the four children in a farmer’s family. He joined the army with the ambition of becoming the elite special forces para commando, but his dream was shattered in the landmine blast during an anti-terror operation in Jammu and Kashmir in 2002 that resulted in the amputation of his left leg from knee down.
