Paris Paralympics 2024: India’s Hokato Hotozhe Sema Wins Bronze Medal in Shot Put F57 –

India’s Hokato Hotozhe Sema won the bronze medal in the men’s shot put F57 final event of the Paris Paralympics 2024 on Friday. Hokato produced an effort of 14.65m – his personal best – to secure the third spot in the final held at the Stade de France.

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The second Indian in the field Soman Rana finished a creditable fifth with a best effort of 14.07m.

World record holder Yasin Khosravi of Iran won the gold with an effort of 15.96m while silver went to Thiago Paulino dos Santos of Brazil who managed 14.76m.

Hokato registered 13.88m in his first attempt before improving in his next for 14.00m. In his third, he managed 14.40m while his fourth – 14.65m – was the best of the six that secured him the medal. In his final two attempts, he recorded 14.15m and 13.80m respectively.

On the other hand, Rana opened with 13.32m and followed that with 14.07m. However, he couldn’t touch 14 again and managed 13.83, 13.79,13.80 and 13.86 in his following attempts.

Overall, Hokato is the fourth Indian after Joginder Sharma (silver in 1984 Paralympics, men’s shot put L6), Deepa Malik (silver in 2016 Paralympics, women’s shot put F53), Sachin Khilari (silver in 2024 Paris Paralympics, men’s shot put F46) to claim a Paralympics shot put medal.

Hokato hails from Nagaland and dreamt of joining the elite Special Forces (SF). However, during a Counter Infiltration Operation, he became a casualty of mine blast and lost his left leg below the knee.

The 40-year-old won the bronze medal at the Asian Para Games last year and a silver at the Morocco Grand Prix in 2022. At the world championship earlier this year, he finished fourth.

This is the second shot put medal for India from Paris after Sachin Khilari’s silver in F46 event. India’s overall medal count is now 27 including six gold, 9 silver and 12 bronze medals.

Earlier on Friday, Praveen Kumar had secured gold medal in the men’s high jump event.