Double Delight! Manish Narwal wins gold; Singhraj silver in shooting mixed 50m pistol SH1 at Paralympics
India woke up to a historic double-podium finish at the shooting mixed 50m pistol SH1 event at the Tokyo Paralympics, as teenager Manish Narwal claimed gold while the veteran Singhraj Adhana won the silver medal.
Narwal, with a overall score of 218.2, finished ahead of Singhraj (216.7).
Russian Olympic Committee's Sergey Malyshev took home the bronze with an effort of 196.8.
Earlier in the qualifying round, Adhana progressed to the medal round in fourth place with a total of 536 while Narwal shot 533 to qualify at seventh at the Asaka Shooting Range.
The 19-year-old Narwal won India's third gold medal at the Tokyo Paralympics. The two medals took India's overall tally to 15 (3 gold medals, 7 silver medals and 5 bronze medals). India currently stand at 34th place.
This was Singhraj's second medal in the ongoing edition; he earlier won a bronze medal at the 10m air pistol SH1 event.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the duo on a phenomenal achievement. Hailing the gold medallist Manish Narwal's performance, PM Modi wrote, "Glory from the Tokyo #Paralympics continues. Great accomplishment by the young and stupendously talented Manish Narwal. His winning the Gold Medal is a special moment for Indian sports. Congratulations to him. Best wishes for the coming times. #Praise4Para."
Lauding Singhraj Adhana for his silver medal, PM Modi wrote, "The outstanding Singhraj Adhana does it again! He wins yet another medal, this time in the Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 event. India rejoices due to his feat. Congrats to him. Wishing him the very best for the future endeavours. #Paralympics #Praise4Para."
Narwal had made a slow start to the final round, shooting scores of 8.7 and 8.4 to begin the elimination stage. Singhraj, too, deflected way off the target with a 5.2 in the second series of elimination, but both recovered to steer into medal contention.
In the fifth elimination shoot-off against Singhraj, Narwal shot an incredible 10.8 and 10.5 to jump to first position. However, Singhraj, even with scores of 7.5 and 8.8, remained in contention after China's Xiaolong Lou faltered in his shots.
In the gold medal shoot-off, Narwal shot 8.4 and 9.1, which were enough to claim a gold medal.
India had already won three medals in shooting at the Tokyo Paralympics -- a bronze from Singhraj, and two medals courtesy Avani Lekhara (gold in 10m air rifle standing SH1 and bronze in 50m Rifle 3 positions SH1).
