Paris: India’s Navdeep Singh won gold medal in men’s javelin F41 and Simran Sharma won bronze medal in women’s 200m T12 race to take India’s overall tally of medals to 29 at Paris Paralympics 2024 yesterday.

India’s Navdeep Singh’s silver medal was upgraded to gold after initial winner Iran’s Sadegh Beit Sayah was disqualified for repeatedly displaying an objectionable flag following a dramatic men’s javelin throw F41 final at the Paris Paralympics  on Saturday.

This is India’s first-ever gold medal in the men’s javelin F41 category. The 23-year-old

para-athlete from Haryana, who had finished fourth at the Tokyo Games three years ago, produced a personal best effort of 47.32m to claim the top position.

Navdeep, who competes in the classification meant for athletes of short stature, originally ended with a silver after he upstaged world record holder Sun Pengxiang of China with a 47.32m throw.

However, that was upgraded to an unprecedented gold after Sadegh’s disqualification. Pengxiang (44.72m) finished with a silver.

Sayah had managed to nose ahead of the field with a new Paralympic record of 47.64m in his penultimate throw but lost the medal owing to his antics.

The International Paralympic Committee rules bar athletes from making any political gestures at the event and Sayah was thrown out of the final results for unsporting/improper conduct.

Iraq’s Nukhailawi Wildan, with 40.46m throw, claimed the bronze medal.

Meanwhile, on the track, India’s Simran Singh took bronze in the women’s T12 (for visually impaired) 200m, clocking a personal best time of 24.75secs.

Cuba’s Omara Durand Elias took gold in 23.62 secs and Venezuela’s Alejandra Paola Perez Lopez the silver (24.19s).

Simran had earlier finished fourth in the T12 100m.

Now, India stands at 16th position in the medals tally with a total of 29 medals including 7 gold, 9 silver and 13 bronze medals.