Paralympics 2024 Day 5 highlights: Sumit Antil and Nitesh Kumar secure gold, India move into top 20

India had an impressive show on Monday after winning 8 medals at the ongoing event, including 2 gold medals by men's javelin thrower Sumit Antil and shuttler Nitesh Kumar. 

Nitesh-Antil bring gold for India:

29-year-old Nitesh won the gold medal in the SL3 men's singles category by defeating Britain's Daniel Bethell 21-14 18-21 23-21 in a hard-fought final that lasted over an hour.

Speaking to PTI after the record win, Nitesh said, "I have lost in such situations against him and didn't want to make the same mistakes... I told myself I should keep fighting for each point. At 19-20 in decider also, I told myself to stay there and make him earn the point,"

Later in the day, Antil became India's third gold medallist at the Paris Paralympics as he also made history by becoming the first Indian to defend his Paralympic title. Antil broke his own record of 68.55m at the Tokyo Paralympics to win the gold medal for India. The defending champion started with a throw of 69.11m in the F64 final and then improved his distance to 70.59m.

India race into top 20: 

Apart from the two gold medallists, India also won silver medals through Yogesh Kathuniya, Thulasimathi Murugesan, Thulasimathi Murugesan and Suhas Yathiraj. Shuttler Manisha Ramadass (SU5) won the bronze medal for India in the SU5 event.

Archery pair Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar won the bronze medal for India in the Mixed Team Compound event after defeating Italy's Eleonora Sarti and Matteo Bonnacina 156-155. It was also the first time that India had won a medal in archery at a Paralympic Games. Meanwhile, 17-year-old Sheetal made history by becoming the first woman to win an archery medal at the Paralympics.

The 8 new medals took the Indian team into the top 20 with a total of 14 medals and the next target would be to better the record of 19 medals achieved by the Indian contingent at the Tokyo Olympics.