Indian athlete Preethi Pal has won the country’s first-ever medal in the 100m event at the Paris Paralympics. Pal clinched the bronze after finishing the women’s 100m T35 event with her personal best time of 14.21 seconds.
This is India’s third medal in the 17th edition of the Paralympic Games.
Pal came behind the Chinese duo of Xia Zhou and Qianqian Gou. Zhou clinched the gold with a season-best of 13.58s and Gou claimed the silver with a personal best of 13.74s.
The T35 classification is meant for athletes who have coordination impairments such as hypertonia, ataxia, and athetosis, as well as cerebral palsy.
Pal had earlier won a bronze at the World Para Athletics Championships 2024 in Kobe to qualify for the Paris Games. She had missed out on two medals at the Para Asian Games last year by a small margin.
India opened their medal tally at the Paralympics earlier as shooters Avani Lekhara and Mona Agarwal won the gold and bronze respectively in the 10m air rifle event.
(With inputs from PTI)