India opened their medal tally at the 2024 Paris Paralympics with a stunning double podium in women's 10m air rifle standing SH1 as defending champion Avani Lekhara shot her way to a second straight gold and debutant Mona Agarwal won bronze on Friday.
In a tightly-fought, rollercoaster final at the Chateauroux range, 22-year-old Lekhara needed to channel all her experience and composure to defend her title - which she did by breaking her own paralympic record set in Tokyo, with a total of 249.7.
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South Korea's Lee Yunri won silver with 246.8, slipping in the final shot after a superb series to pull herself ahead of Agarwal. The 36 years old Agarwal played a superb match finding herself in the lead towards the business end of the final but a 10.0 on her final shot meant she finished with bronze (228.7).
Nonetheless, it was an impressive final from an Indian shooting perspective with Lekhara and Agarwal in the medal positions for most of it once elimination began. Both had a slow start and neither were in the top three after the first 10 shots. Lekhara - who had only one shot below 10 in the entire final, that too in the final series - then climbed up with clutch scores in the upper 10s.
At one point, she dropped down to bronze, as Agarwal climbed up. Her penultimate shot was a 9.9 as pressure told but when Lee hit a wayward 6.8 on the final shot, she had sealed her second straight gold medal - finding the mark with a 10.5 under pressure.
Earlier in qualification, Lekhara finished second with a total of 625.8 - just 0.2 points short of the old Paralympics record while Agarwal was fourth with a total of 623.1, with a clutch end to ensure she made her first final.
Both Lekhara and Agarwal can add to their tallies when they will be in action in the 50m rifle event after this.