Indian contingent cross 50-medal mark at Special Olympics World Summer Games

Berlin, Jun 22 (PTI) The Indian contingent continued its medal rush at the Special Olympics World Summer Games, crossing the 50-medal mark here.

At the end of the day’s action, SO Bharat had 55 medals, including 15 gold, 27 silver, 13 bronze spread across five different sports – athletics, cycling, powerlifting, roller skating and swimming.

India registered five medals in swimming (3 golds, 1 silver and, 1 bronze) and six on the cycling course (3 Gold, 2 silver, one bronze) on Wednesday.

Every member of the cycling team won a medal with Neel Yadav being the first to do so with a bronze in the 5km road race.

Later Yadav, Shivani and Indu Prakash won golds in the 1km time trial, while Kalpana Jena, and Jeyaseela Arbutharaj took home the silver.

In the pool, India’s medals almost doubled in number thanks to the exploits of the freestyle swimmers, Diksha Jitendra Shirgaonkar, Pooja Giridharrao Gaikavada and Prashaddhi Kamble winning golds, with Madhav Madan adding another medal to his tally (gold, 25m freestyle) and Sidhanth Murali Kumar winning bronze in the 25m freestyle.

Among others, Sonepat’s Saket Kundu won silver in the mini javelin Level B.

The Little Angels School student is a multi-sport athlete, who has competed in table tennis, figure skating and athletics at the national level.

Among the probables for the 2023 Special Olympics World Winter Games, Kundu lost his chance to represent India when the Games were cancelled.

Shrugging his disappointment off he switched to mini javelin, an event that made its debut at the World Games in Berlin, and his medal was the first India has won in the event.