Indian para-athletes and swimmers Suyash Narayan Jadhav and Niranjan Mukandan have failed to qualify for the men’s 50-metre butterfly S7 class final event at the Tokyo Paralympics today.
Suyash, who has been a gold medal winner at the 2018 Para Asian Games in Jakarta ended up at the fifth position in heat 1 and clocked a time of 32.36 seconds, 2.65 seconds close than behind the leader of Heat 1, American para-swimmer Austin Evan who clocked a time of 29.71 seconds to qualify for the finals.
In heat 2, Niranjan Mukundan ended up at sixth position with the 26-year-old para-swimmer clocking a time of 33.82 seconds. Only the top four in any swimming heat at the Paralympics qualify for the finals.
In the S7 class, para-athletes/swimmers who have limited function in their legs or are missing a leg or parts of both legs can compete. These categories have been made so that there is an equal footing among para-athletes competing with similar abilities.
This is also the first time after the 1972 Heidelberg Paralympics that Indian para-swimmers are competing in the games. India, in general, sent their largest contingent of para-athletes to the Paralympic Games this year.
They have already won 11 medals which includes two gold medals, six silver and three bronze medals. This can be considered India’s largest haul of medals ever in the Paralympics.
Earlier today, Praveen Kumar won a silver in the T64 High Jump Event. In para-badminton, Pramod Bhagat and Palak Kohli enter the semifinals of the mixed doubles while others like Suhas, Tarun and Manoj have qualified for the next rounds as well.
