India’s Amit Kumar Saroha missed a bronze medal by a whisker in the men’s F51 club throw competition at the Rio Paralympic Games.
The 31-year-old Haryana para-athlete was leading initially in the six-round competition with a best throw of 26.63m — which he came up in his second attempt — before eventually losing his way later to fall out of medal bracket and finish fourth.
2012 London Paralympics gold winner Zeljko Dimitruevic of Serbia took the top spot with a world record throw of 29.91m, while Milos Mitic (26.84m), also of Serbia, and Marian Kureja (26.82m) of Slovakia bagged the silver and bronze respectively.
Another Indian in the fray, Dharambir finished ninth and last in the finals with a throw of 21.39m.
Amit had won a gold in the 2014 Para Asian Games in Incheon and a silver in the 2015 IPC World Athletics Championships.
A road accident at the age of 22 left him with severe spinal injuries, tragically making him a quadriplegic confined to a wheelchair.
India has won four medals in the Rio Paralympics (2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze). Mariyappan Thangavelu (men’s T42 high jump) and Devendra Jhajharia (men’s F46 javelin throw) had won gold medals in their respective events while Deepa Malik (women’s F53 shot put) and Varun Singh Bhati (men’s T42 high jump) had bagged a silver and bronze respectively.
This is India’s best ever performance in the Paralympics. India had won eight medals before these Rio Paralympics — 1 gold in 1972, 2 silver and 2 bronze in 1984, 1 gold and 1 bronze in 2004 and 1 silver in 2012.
India are being represented by 12 para-athletes in the Rio Games.