The Indian contingent at the Special Olympics World Games 2023, passed the 50-medal mark on Wednesday in Berlin. At the end of the day’s action, India had 55 medals (15 gold, 27 silver, 13 bronze) spread across five different sports — athletics, cycling, powerlifting, roller skating and swimming.
The medal rush came from swimming and cycling course, with India registering five medals in the pool (3 golds, 1 silver and, 1 bronze) and six on the cycling course (3 gold, 2 silver, one bronze).
On Wednesday, every member of the Indian cycling team won a medal to bring back home.
Neel Yadav was the first to do so, his bronze in the 5km road race coming at the end of a period where most of his peers had missed out on a medal by close margins. Shivani, Neel Yadav and Indu Prakash won golds in the 1km Time trial, while Kalpana Jena, and Jeyaseela Arbutharaj took home the silver.
In the pool, India’s medals almost doubled thanks to the exploits of the freestyle swimmers, Diksha Jitendra Shirgaonkar, Pooja Giridharrao Gaikavada and Prashaddhi Kamble winning golds, with Madhav Madan adding another medal to his tally (gold, 25m freestyle) and Sidhanth Murali Kumar winning bronze in the 25m freestyle.
Sonepat lad Saket Kundu won silver in the mini Javelin Level B, and in doing so, exorcised a longstanding grudge and fulfilled a wish that has seen him traverse different disciples to get to represent India at the world stage.
The Little Angels School student is a multi-sport athlete, who has competed in table tennis, figure skating and athletics at the National level.
Shrugging his disappointment off he switched to athletics, to the mini javelin, an event that made its debut at the World Games in Berlin, and was selected after a gruelling camp. It wasn’t for nothing. His medal was the first India has won in the event, a piece of history in itself.
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