Paralympics: Canoe sprinter Pooja misses final; India sign off with record 29 medals

Paris, Sep 8 (PTI) Pooja Ojha failed to finish inside the top-three to miss the final berth of the women’s kayak single 200m KL1 sprint canoeing event, bringing an end to India’s record-breaking campaign at the Paralympics here on Sunday.

India thus concluded the Paris Paralympics with a record haul of seven gold, nine silver, and 13 bronze medals, set to finish 18th in the overall medals tally.

The final addition to India’s unmatched medal count came from the athletics arena late on Saturday, where Navdeep Singh’s silver medal in the men’s javelin F41 category was upgraded to gold, capping a spectacular finish to the Games.

At the last edition in Tokyo, India were ranked 24th with five gold, eight silver and six bronze medals.

On the concluding day of the Paralympics at the Vaires-sur-Marne Stadium, Pooja was the last Indian in fray and she finished her semifinal 1 with a timing of 1:17.03, which was 7.03 seconds behind the third-placed Eleonora de Paolis of Italy.

The top-three make the final. Brianna Hennessy of Canada (57.00) and Maosan of China (57.26) claimed the top-two spots of semifinal 1.

During the Heats, Pooja had finished in the fifth place. As a result of this contemporary result, India’s para-canoeing stint in the event has ended.

Besides her, Prachi Yadav was another canoe sprinter who, on Saturday, had finished eighth in the women’s VL2 200m.

India’s only male canoe sprinter, Yash Kumar, had settled for the fifth spot in the KL1 200m semi-final on Saturday.

The KL1 category is primarily for canoe sprinters who propel with their arms only, with very limited or no trunk function and no leg function.