Paralympics 2024: The near-misses that hurt

India's campaign at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris was nothing short of exceptional, as the country's para-athletes collectively won 29 medals, including 7 gold, 9 silver, and 13 bronze.

This medal tally could have been even higher but for several heartbreaking fourth-place finishes.

Here is a look at all the fourth-place finishes secured by Indian para-athletes across various disciplines at the Paris Paralympics, where a medal narrowly eluded them.

Archery

Rakesh Kumar: The archer from Jammu & Kashmir missed out on a bronze by a whisker in the Men’s Individual Compound Open category thus earning him a 4th spot.

The archer who had never qualified for the semifinals in the individual category up until the Paris Paralympics lost to Xinliang of China by just two points before losing to another Chinese para-archer Zihao by just a point,146 to Zi’s 147 in the bronze medal match.

The 39-year-old Rakesh lost in the quarterfinals at the Tokyo Paralympics and the 4th place finish is his best so far at the Paralympics in the individual category

However, the para-archer returned to bag the bronze medal with Sheetal Devi in the Mixed Team event of the Paris Paralympics.

Harvinder Singh/Pooja Jatyan: The duo was well-placed for a bronze medal but let it slip away in a shoot-off which eventually condemned them to the 4th position. And when the scores emerged, Harvinder Singh and Pooja Jatyan had lost the bronze medal by the barest of margins with a scores reading 5-4 in favour of Slovenia.

Had the shoot-off been won by the Indians, the victory would have been historic as there would have been a medal in the mixed team events of both compound and recurve archery at the Paris Paralympics.

Harvinder Singh had earlier ensured a medal in the recurve archery by winning a gold in the Men's Individual.

Track and field

Simran Sharma: Another 100-metre medal was in the offing from Simran Sharma in the Women’s T12 category after Preethi Pal's bronze medal win in the Women's T35 category.

But Simran finished fourth in the final and missed a podium finish in the T12 final, an event for visual impaired athletes, where she ran with her guide Abhay Singh.

However, all was not lost as Simran, as the world champion in the women's 200m, proved her mettle at the quadrennial event by securing the bronze medal with a personal best timing of 24.75.

Shailesh Kumar: Shailesh Kumar was one of the three Indians in the Men's High Jump T63 category that were unable to secure a podium finish like his compatriots Sharad Kumar and Mariyappan Thangavelu, who bagged silver and bronze respectively.

Although both Shailesh and Mariyappan cleared 1.85 meters which was a personal best for Shailesh, he finished fourth due to him clearing the mark only in his second attempt, while Mariyappan succeeded on his first securing the bronze medal.

Sharad Kumar was impressive in his jump clearing the 1.88 meters but it wasn't enough for him to bag the gold medal, which was won by Ezra Frech of the USA with a jump of 1.94 meters.

Sandeep Chaudhary: Sandeep Chaudhary’s season-best throw of 62.80 meters wasn't enough to earn him a place inside the top three in the Men's Javelin Throw F64 event.

The highlight of the event was Sumit Antil's world record throw of 70.59 meters, earning him the gold medal, while the silver and bronze were won by athletes from Sri Lanka and Australia respectively.

Sandeep who threw his best on his third attempt was unable to topple Australia’s Michal Burian, who threw 64.89 meters for a bronze medal.

Badminton

Sukant Kadam: Sukant Kadam, making his debut at the Paris Paralympics, lost to his compatriot Yathiraj in the semifinals, thereby confirming a medal for Yathiraj in the category.

In the bronze medal match, Sukant faced Setiawan of Indonesia, who had the upper hand right from the world go. The Indonesian eventually post a straight games victory (21-17, 21-18) to relegate Sukant to the fourth spot in the category.

Sivarajan Solaimalai/Nithya Sre Sivan: Indian para-shuttlers Sivarajan Solaimalai and Nithya Sre Sivan fought valiantly in the mixed doubles SH6 event, securing fourth place finish.

The Indian pair made their debut in the doubles event of the SH6 category, although India had already claimed a medal in the singles event of this category, courtesy of Krishna Nagar’s gold at the Tokyo Paralympics.

The Solaimalai/Nithya pair started strong in their semifinal match against the USA, but the American pair came back stronger to win 21-17, 14-21, and 13-21.

And finally, in the bronze medal match Solaimalai/Nithya were unable to make inroads against the Indonesian pair, finishing fourth.