Preethi Pal becomes first Indian woman to win two Paralympic medals in athletics
Preethi Pal became the first Indian woman to win two Paralympic medals in track and field events, having bagged a bronze in the women’s 200 T35 class at Paris 2024 on Sunday.
Preethi Pal clocked a personal best timing of 30.01s in the final to take the third position. The 23-year-old Indian athlete had won a bronze in the women’s 100m T35 class earlier on Friday for India’s first-ever Paralympic medal in a track event.
Xia Zhou and Guo Qianqian of the People’s Republic of China bagged the gold and silver medal, respectively, in the 200m event. Xia Zhou completed the race in 28.15s while Guo Qianqian registered a personal best of 29.09s. The same Chinese duo beat Preethi Pal for the top two spots in the 100m sprint as well.
The T35 class is for runners with coordination impairments such as hypertonia, ataxia and athetosis.
Preethi qualified for her maiden Paralympic Games by winning a bronze medal in the women’s 200m T35 event at the World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan, earlier this year.
The Indian para athlete missed out on a medal at the Asian Para Games in China last year and moved her training base to New Delhi. The move paid its dividends, as she now holds two Paralympic medals.
"This is after five years of hard work but there have been people who have been taunting me and saying things that I won were because I was lucky,” Preethi said after winning her second medal.
"Winning tonight proves to people that it is not by luck alone but because of hard work. This is due to my coach Gaje-bhaiya (Gajendra Singh) who I remember after I had vomited in training because the intensity was so high,” she added.
Preethi’s bronze medal on Sunday was India’s sixth medal at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
The other four medals for India were won in para shooting. Avani Lekhara and Mona Agarwal won gold and bronze, respectively, in the 10m air rifle shooting standing in SH1 class. Manish Narwal (men's 10m air pistol SH1) and Rubina Francis (women's 10m air pistol SH1) won silver and bronze, respectively.