Kasthuri Rajamani from Tamil Nadu muscled her way to gold in the elite 67kg event of the Khelo India Para Games powerlifting competition in New Delhi on Thursday.
Having represented India in the Para Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, in October, Kasthuri came up with a massive effort of 100 kg in her third attempt to seal gold. She was a runaway winner ahead of silver medallist Parul Gohil of Gujarat (64 kg) and Punjab’s Sumandeep, who won bronze with 57 kg.
In the elite 73 kg category, Reshma Mogil from Gujarat was a clear winner with a lift of 72 kg. The silver was won by Sahista of Delhi, who lifted 58 kg while the bronze medal went to Maya from Rajasthan, at 57 kg.
The 80 kg section saw Punjab’s Gursewak Singh in stunning form, improving with every attempt. He began with 162kg, went on to lift 166 kg and then finished with 171kg to win gold. Abdul Salam from Kerala won silver with 155kg while Delhi’s Honey Dabas settled for bronze with a best effort of 152kg.
Karnataka’s Sandesha BG kissed gold with a stupendous effort of 171kg in the elite 88kg section. Finishing second was Delhi’s Jagmohan, 26kg behind at 145kg. Bronze went to Divyesh Ladani of Gujarat, 140kg being the best effort.Manish Narwal continued his string of medal wins on the second day of shooting action in Khelo India Para Games 2023 at Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range, as he claimed a Gold medal in Men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1. The 21-year old shooter, who won the Gold medal in P4 Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 with a Paralympic record score of 218.2 in Tokyo, and a Bronze medal in Men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1 at 2023 Para Asian Games, scored a total score of 240.2 to win his first yellow medal in the inaugural edition of Khelo India Para Games.
Manish, who suffers from an infirmity in his right hand ever since he was a child, attained a score on Thursday which surpassed his Gold-medal winning score of 239.7 in the same category which he had achieved at the Lima 2023 World Shooting Para Sport Championships. Rudransh Khandelwal, who had surpassed Manish to claim a Silver medal in Men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1 at 2023 Para Asian Games, claimed the Silver medal in the same category on Thursday at the Khelo India Para Games.
Meanwhile, on the opening day for para table tennis at the IG Stadium, Gujarat’s Bhavina Patel, who won silver in 2020 Paralympics and bronze medal in Asian Games 2023, registered a comfortable 3-0 win against Gujarat’s Shamim Chawda in her opening match in the women’s Class-4 category.
Also, bronze medallist of 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Sonal Patel, who hails from Gujarat, defeated Tamil Nadu’s Fatima Beevi 3-0 in her opening match in the women’s Class 1 – 3 category.
