Chateauroux (France), Aug 30: Indian para-shooter Manish Narwal remained on course for a second successive gold medal, securing a place in the final of the Men's 10m Air Pistol SH1 in the Paris Paralympics at the Chateauroux International Shooting Range here on Friday.

Narwal finished fifth in the qualification round with a score of 565 while his compatriot Rudransh Khandelwal missed out on a place in the medal round after finishing ninth with 561. He was just one point behind Uzbekistan’s Server Ibragimov who took the last qualification spot into the final.

Narwal, who won the gold medal in the Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 event in the Tokyo Paralympics, recovered from a poor start to keep himself alive in the medal contention. The final will be played at 5:30 pm IST on Friday.

Earlier, Avani Lekhara won the gold while Mona Agarwal clinched bronze in the women's 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 to open India's medal count in the Paris Paralympics.

Avani became the first Indian para-athlete to win gold medals in back-to-back Paralympic Games after claiming the top honours in her Games debut in Tokyo. She not only defended her gold but also broke her own record with 249.7, to set a new Paralympic record in the category. Javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia is the first Indian to win two gold medals in the Paralympics after bagging the top spot on the podium in the 2004 and 2016 editions.

On the other hand, Mona, who was briefly leading the standings in the final, finished third with a total of 228.7 to win a bronze medal in the event and also open the country's medal count in the Games.

South Korea's Lee Yunri claimed the silver medal with a total of 246.8. She lost the gold on the final shot after finishing with 6.8 as Avani successfully defended her gold medal, won in her Paralympic debut in Tokyo.

--IANS

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