Harvinder Singh became the first Indian archer to strike gold at the Paralympics before Club Thrower Dharambir also secured a top finish with a record-shattering throw as the country's athletes continued to surpass expectations on yet another rewarding day at the quadrennial showpiece in Paris on Wednesday.
World champion shot-putter Sachin Sarjerao Khilari and another club thrower Pranav Soorma's silver-winning performances were the other highlights on a terrific day for India.
Their performance took India's medal haul to 24. The nation is currently placed 13th in the overall standings with five gold, nine silver and 10 bronze medals. It is India's best ever performance at the event and will only get better with three more days of competition left.
Harvinder impressive showing came after World champion shot-putter Khilari's record-shattering silver-winning effort.
The 33-year-old Harvinder, the first Indian to win an archery medal at the Games with a bronze three years ago in Tokyo, bettered the hue of his medal in a superlative performance of five consecutive wins.
He defeated Poland's Lukasz Ciszek 6-0 in a one-sided final to script history for himself and the country.
Both legs of the Haryana-archer were impaired while he was still a toddler as a dengue treatment adversely affected him.
Earlier, the 34-year-old Khilari pulled off a 16.32 metres throw in his second attempt in the F46 category final to better his own Asian record of 16.30m, set in May, while winning gold in the World Para-Athletics Championships in Japan.
Greg Stewart of Canada defended his Tokyo Paralympics gold with a throw of 16.38m, while Luka Bakovic of Croatia took the bronze with 16.27m.
Late on Tuesday night, Indians won silver and bronze in the men's high jump T63 and javelin throw F46 after Deepthi Jeevanji's bronze in the women's 400m T20 category in India's best day at the Games.
Sharad Kumar and Mariyappan Thangavelu won silver and bronze respectively in the men's high jump T63 while Ajeet Singh and Sundar Singh Gurjar took the second and third sports in the javelin throw F46 final.
F46 classification is for athletes with arm deficiency, impaired muscle power or impaired passive range of movement in arms, with athletes competing in a standing position.
Hailing from a farming family at Karagani village in Maharashtra's Sangli district, Khilari met with an accident during his childhood. The injury resulted in gangrene of the skin on his elbow and muscle atrophy. Even after several surgeries, his arm never recovered. He also lost his mother when he was young.
"I had wanted to win the gold medal, but it did not happen. It's my best distance but I am not satisfied. I feel I could have done better. It was not my day," Khilari said about his performance on Wednesday.
Simran enters 100 metres semis
World champion sprinter Simran entered the semi-finals of the 100m (T12) event with a season's best timing of 12.17 seconds. The runner was visually impaired as an infant after being born prematurely.
After the heats of Wednesday, she was ranked second overall, finishing behind reigning Paralympics champion and World record holder Omara Durand of Cuba, who also ran a season's best of 11.87s, in the 16-member field.
The semi-final are on Thursday.
Tokyo silver-medallist Bhavina ousted
India's challenge in the women's singles table tennis competition ends after the Tokyo edition's silver-medallist Bhavinaben Patel lost to China's Ying Zhou 3-1 in the class 4 quarter-finals.
Bhavinaben, who became India's first-ever medal winner in the sport with her silver in the Tokyo Paralympics, fought hard in the first two games and even won the third but eventually lost to her Chinese opponent 12-14, 9-11, 11-8, 6-11.
Earlier, Sonalben Patel, the other women's singles player in class 3, lost to Croatia's Andela Muzinic Vincetic in the Round of 16.
Bhavinaben was diagnosed with polio when she was a year-old.
She competes in class 4 which is meant for wheel-chair bound athletes with functional arms and hands.
Shooters Nihal, Rudransh crash out
In Chateauroux, India’s shooters Nihal Singh and Rudransh Khandelwal failed to make the final of Mixed 50m pistol (SH1) competition.
Nihal, the 2023 World Championships bronze medallist, finished 19th. He had an aggregate score of 522 across six series.
Competing in his maiden Paralympics, 17-year-old Rudransh, who lost his left leg in a freak mishap when he was just eight-years-old, scored 517 to sign off in the 22nd spot in the qualification round.
