Simran Sharma came on to the track for the women's 200m T12 final at the Paris Paralympics as the reigning world champion. Less than 25 seconds later, she was a Paralympic medallist for the first time, winning the bronze with a new personal best time.
She and her guide Abhay Singh -- the 24-year-old Simran competes in the category for the partially visually impaired -- shaved 0.20 seconds in a terrific sprint to reach the podium, just two days ago after facing the heartbreak of fourth in the 100m T12 race, and that by a mere 0.05 seconds.
She put that disappointment behind to clock 24.75 seconds and win the bronze that took India's medal tally up to a record-extending 29. Cuba's Omara Durand Elias, the undisputed GOAT of this event (who was injured during the last World Championships), won gold with a time of 23.62s while Venezuela's Alejandra Paola Perez Lopez won silver. Hajar Safarzadeh, who had beaten Simran to silver at last year's Para Asian Games, finished fourth. Both Lopez and Hajar beat their personal bests too.
PARALYMPICS 2024 KEY DATES | EVERY MEDAL WON BY INDIA AT THE PARALYMPICS | PARALYMPIC CLASSIFICATIONS EXPLAINED
For Simran it was a remarkable run. It takes immense determination to better your personal best by 0.20 seconds in sprints in the brightest of spotlights. Her semifinal time was 25.03 seconds and in the heats, she clocked 25.41 seconds. To then run her best for the medal was a huge effort. She had similarly run her then personal best of 24.95 seconds to win the World Championships gold medal earlier this year in Kobe, Japan.
To keep registering your personal best on the biggest of stages says something about the mentality of an athlete. And Simran, who was born prematurely and survived weeks in an incubator, is nothing if not determined.
The 24-year-old from Ghaziabad was encouraged to and competed in extra-curricular sports all her life despite her vision challenges, before discovering para sports around 2019. And yet when she competed at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championship, she had to deal with her father battling a chronic illness and his death soon after.
Simran also had faced financial struggles to train early on but that's when she met Gajender Singh, a fellow athlete and a soldier in the Indian Army. He became her coach and is now her husband. He has taken out loans to help her training since the time she got her license to compete in para-athletics.
She has been competing on the circuit for a few years now, qualifying for the Tokyo Games where she finished 11th in the 100m T12. But 2024 has the been the year the 24-year-old has made her big breakthrough, first with the World Championship gold in May and now a Paralympics medal in September.
Interestingly, her guide in Paris, Abhay Singh is also an India international sprinter. He holds U18 national record holder for 200m and won bronze at the 2023 Asian U18 Championships and that technical ability showed as he kept stride superbly with Simran.
With the talent and determination, they possess, it's only fair to say that we will be hearing from Simran and Abhay.