India’s Ravi Rongali finished a creditable fifth in the men’s F40 shot put final while Rakshita Raju bowed out in the opening round heats of women’s 1500m T11 race on the third day of athletics competitions at the Paris Paralympics on Sunday. Rongali, who had won a silver in the Asian Para Games last year in China, produced a personal best of 10.63m but that was only enough for a fifth-place finish in a top-class field.
World record holder Miguel Montero of Portugal won the gold with a throw of 11.21m while Mongolia’s Battulga Tsegmid (11.09m) took the bronze.
Reigning Asian Para Games champion Garrah Tnaiash of Iraq took the bronze with a throw of 11.03m while Russian Tokyo Paralympics gold medallist and reigning world para athletics champion Denis Gnezdilov, who was competing as Neutral Paralympic Athlete, was fourth with 10.80m.
F40 class is for para athletes with short stature.
Earlier in the day, Rakshita, 23, finished last out of four runners in Heat 3 after clocking a timing of 5:29.92s.
The two runners from the three heats qualified for the final.
China’s Shanshan He topped Rakshita’s heat with a timing of 4:44.66s ahead of Louzanne Coetzee of South Africa, who clocked season best timing of 4:45.25s.
The T11 category is for athletes with visual impairment, which may be entire loss of vision or he or she may be able to perceive light, but have no ability to see the shape of a hand at any distance.
T11 athletes commonly run with guides.
On Friday, Preethi Pal had won India’s first athletics medal in a Paralympics track event, clinching a bronze in the women’s T35 100m event with a personal best time of 14.21 seconds.
The 23-year-old Preethi, a farmer’s daughter from Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, had come to Paris after winning a bronze in the same event at the World Para Athletics Championships in May.
T35 classification is meant for athletes who have coordination impairments such as hypertonia, ataxia and athetosis. PTI PDS PDS AT AT AT
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