The achievement marks her as the second Indian woman to win two medals in a single Paralympics, after shooter Avani Lekhara’s gold and bronze in Tokyo.
Preethi’s bronze medal in the 200m T35 adds to India’s second para-athletics medal at the Paris Paralympics.
She competed against world record holder and Tokyo Paralympics champion Zhou Xia of China, who won the gold with 28.15 seconds, and Guo Qianqian, also from China, who took silver with a time of 29.09 seconds.
On Friday, Preethi clinched India’s first athletics medal in a Paralympics track event, winning bronze in the women’s T35 100m competition with a personal best time of 14.21 seconds.
Notably, all of India’s previous Paralympics athletics medals before this year had come from field events.
Former Paralympic Committee of India president Deepa Malik is the only other Indian woman track and field medallist in Paralympics, having won silver in shot put F53 category in the 2016 Rio Games.
Born with coordination impairments, her lower body was plastered for six days post-birth, leading to weak legs and irregular leg posture. Traditional treatments and wearing calipers from age five to thirteen were part of her early struggles.
Her perspective shifted at age 17, inspired by the Paralympic Games on social media, and a life-changing encounter with Paralympic athlete Fatima Khatoon, who introduced her to para-athletics.
With Khatoon’s support, Preethi began competing in state and national championships from 2018, qualifying for the Asian Para Games in China last year where she finished fourth in the 100m and 200m sprints.
To fine-tune her running techniques, Preethi moved to Delhi to train under coach Gajender Singh. The training culminated in her winning bronze medals in the 100m and 200m at the World Para Athletics Championships. She benefited from the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) for financial assistance.
Earlier on Sunday, India’s Ravi Rongali finished fifth in the men’s F40 shot put final, achieving a personal best of 10.63m.
World record holder Miguel Montero of Portugal won gold with 11.21m, while Mongolia’s Battulga Tsegmid took silver with 11.09m, and Garrah Tnaiash of Iraq won bronze with 11.03m. Russian Tokyo Paralympics gold medallist Denis Gnezdilov, competing as Neutral Paralympic Athlete, placed fourth with 10.80m.
Rakshita Raju, competing in the women’s 1500m T11 race, was eliminated in the opening round heats, finishing last out of four runners in Heat 3 with a time of 5:29.92s. The two runners from each of the three heats qualified for the final, with China’s Shanshan He leading Rakshita’s heat with a time of 4:44.66s, followed by Louzanne Coetzee of South Africa with a season-best timing of 4:45.25s.
