Differently-abled but exceptionally resolute, India’s para-athletes would look back at their Paralympics campaign with pride as most of the established names lived up to expectations and many talented greenhorns made the big stage their own in a record-smashing medal haul of 29.

Seven of these 29 medals are gold, which is another first for the country that started to make its presence felt only in the 2016 edition, where it won four medals.

The upswing in performance after that has been meteoric with Tokyo yielding 19, a number that was surpassed this time.

Not to forget, a lot of medal-winning performances here were record efforts and personal bests, demonstrating that the athletes have made significant progress as far as their self-belief is concerned.

The 29 medals in five sports, including a whopping 17 at the track and field events, have ensured that the country will end in the top 20 of the mega-event that was once again dominated by China with over 200 medals.

India are still far away from becoming a force at the Olympic level, but the nation has certainly emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the competition for the differently-abled.

The government did its bit with increased spending on training, recovery and support staff. The sports ministry had 59 para-athletes in its Target Olympic Podium Scheme roster, 50 of whom qualified for Paris.

The contingent of 84 ensured plenty of firsts for India in Paralympic history, including medals in track events with sprinter Preethi Pal winning a bronze in the women’s 100m T35 and 200m T35 class.

Another first-ever medal came via Kapil Parmar in judo. He made India proud by securing a bronze in the men’s 60kg J1 class.

While plenty of firsts were registered, some of the Indian athletes including javelin thrower Sumit Antil and shooter Avani Lekhara had high expectations to meet, having won gold in Tokyo. But both passed with flying colours. Sumit broke his own Paralympic record for a second successive javelin gold while wheelchair-bound rifle shooter Lekhara dominated the field in the air rifle SH1 final.

With inputs from PTI