Paris: Preethi Pal on Friday became the first Indian to win a Paralympic medal in a track event. 23-year-old Preethi won a bronze medal in the women’s T35 100m event with a personal best time of 14.21 seconds at the Paris Paralympics. Apart from it being the country’s first track medal ever at the Games, Preethi’s bronze is also India’s first medal from para-athletics at Paris 2024.
China’s Zhou Xia (13.58) and Guo Qianqian (13.74) won the gold and silver respectively. T35 classification is meant for athletes who have coordination impairments such as hypertonia, ataxia and athetosis, as well as cerebral palsy.
Preethi had earlier won bronze at the World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan and thus clinched a quota for the Games. Preethi had also narrowly missed out on two medals at the Para Asian Games in Hangzhou last year but was a strong contender for a medal in Paris. Preethi’s bronze is the 18th athletics medal for India overall at the Paralympics. However, all of the previous medals have come in field events.
Preethi’s medal was the third India won on Friday. Avani Lekhara became the first Indian to win gold at consecutive Paralympics as she defended her 10m air rifle standing SH1 title. Mona Agarwal won bronze in the same event. Manish Narwal also won silver shortly after Preethi in men’s 10m air pistol, taking India’s medal tally on Friday alone to four.
