Caxias do Sul (Brazil), May 5 : Indians won three medals including two golds and a bronze on Day-3 of the Deaflympics here. Shooters Dhanush Srikanth and Shourya Saini clinched the gold and bronze respectively. Indian badminton mixed team bagged the gold by defeating Japan 3-1 in the finals on Wednesday. Srikanth shot record 247.5 to clinch the top spot while Saini shot 224.3 to finish third behind South Korea’s Kim Roo Wim, who shot 246.6 to win a silver. In qualifying, Srikanth (623.3) and Saini (622.7) finished second and third respectively to make the cut for the finals. Korea’s Wim topped the qualification with a world record score of 625.1. In the badminton mixed team event, India did not have the start they wanted as the mixed doubles pair of Abhinav Sharma and Aaditya Yadav lost 16-21, 11-21 to Masaaki Numakura and Chihiro Numakura. After losing the opening match, India left no stones unturned to get back into the form as Jerlin Jayaratchagan defeated Mai Yakabe 17-21, 21-12, 21-14 in the women singles. Abhinav outplayed Kohei Kakiuchi in straight sets 21-16 21-11 in the men’s doubles to give India 2-1 lead over Japan. Then, women’s doubles team of Jerlin Jayaratchagan and Aaditya Yadav sealed the deal with 21-15 21-15 win over Manami Nagahara and Chihiro Numakura. In the medal table, India are placed eight with three medals ( 2 golds and a bronze). War-torn Ukraine are on top of the table with 38 medals ( 19 gold, 6 silver and 13 bronze). India has sent its largest and the youngest contingent ever of 65 athletes to participate in the Deaflympics.
