India‘s gold medal winning para-shooter Avani Lekhara will be the flag bearer of the country’s contingent at the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Paralympics on Sunday. There will be 11 para athletes from the Indian contingent at the closing cermony, PTI reported.

“Avani will be the flag bearer and there will be 11 participants from the Indian contingent during the closing ceremony,” a Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) official said. 

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19-year-old Lekhara won gold medal in the R-2 women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 event on Monday, as she became the only Indian female athlete to win an individual gold medal at either the Olympic or Paralympic Games. 

She made further history on Friday, becoming the first Indian woman to win multiple medals in a single edition of the Paralympics, bagging bronze in the 50m Rifle 3 Position SH1 event on Friday. 

Before Lekhara, who was paralysed below the waist after a car accident in 2012, Joginder Singh Sodhi whad won a silver and two bronze medals in the 1984 Paralympics.

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Another shooter Singhraj Adana joined the exclusive club on Saturday when he added a silver in P4 Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 event to the bronze in the P1 men’s 10m air pistol SH1 event he won on Tuesday.

Shot-putter Tek Chand was India’s flag-bearer for the Paralympics opening ceremony on August 24 after he replaced high jumper Mariyappan Thangavelu in the last minute.

Mariyappan, who won a silver here, was quarantined along with five other Indians after coming in close contact of a COVID positive person during his flight to Tokyo.

India has registered its best-ever performance at the Paralympics, winning an unprecedented 17 medals so far, including four gold, seven silver and six bronze medals.

India won four medals on Saturday, with Manish Narwal and Singhraj Adhana clinching a gold and silver medal respectively in shooting, with Pramod Bhagat and Manoj Sarkar bagging a gold and bronze respective in badminton.