India para-athlete Navdeep’s silver has been upgraded to a gold medal after the initial winner, Islamic Republic of Iran’s Sadegh Beit Sayah, got disqualified from the men’s javelin F41 final at the Paris Paralympics.
Navdeep had initially finished second with a throw of 47.32 m, while Sadegh took the top honours with a Paralympic record of 47.64m.
However, following Sadegh’s disqualification, Navdeep was crowned as the gold medal winner.
“Iranian athlete Beit Sayah Sadegh has been disqualified. As a result, the silver medal has been upgraded to gold, and Navdeep has now secured the Gold medal with a personal best of 47.32m. This marks the first-ever Gold medal in the Men’s Javelin F41 category,” Sports Authority of India (SAI) media said in a statement.
In the jam-packed Stade de France, it was a redemption arc for Navdeep after he finished fourth in Tokyo. Navdeep was second in order among the six participants and started his campaign in the final with a foul attempt. He failed to stop the momentum and fell over the line, which resulted in a foul attempt.
In his third attempt, Navdeep dug deep and broke the Paralympic record with a massive 47.32m throw and moved to the top spot.
Islamic Republic of Iran’s Sadegh Beit Sayah thought he had rewritten history with a 47.64m throw to set the new Paralympic record. But his disqualification after the conclusion of the final took away the gold medal triumph from him.
Moments before Navdeep added another medal for India, Simran Sharma delivered her personal best performance to get her hands on the bronze medal in the women’s 200m T12 final.
She clocked her personal best timing of 24.75s to settle for the third spot. Cuba’s Omara Durand Elias bagged the gold medal by finishing the race in 23.62s. Venezuela’s Alejandra Perez Lopez settled for silver with a timing of 24.19s.
India has now won 29 medals at the Paris Paralympics, including seven gold, nine silver, and 13 bronze.
