Paris Paralympics: Simran advances to women's 100m -T12 final

Paris, Sep 5
India's Simran Sharma qualified for the women's 100m -T12 final after finishing second in the semifinal 2, clocking 12.33 seconds at the Paris Paralympics, here at the Stade de France on Thursday.

Accompanied by her guide Abhay Singh, the 24-year-old reigning world champion Simran finished second behind Katrin Mueller-Rottgardt of Germany in the semifinal 2.

Simran sealed her place in the final as the third fastest runner. As per the rule, the first-placed runner in each semifinal and the next 2 fastest advanced to the final. Omara Durand of Cuba topped the first semifinal.

Overall, Omara finished first across two semifinals with a timing of 12.01 seconds, followed by Mueller-Rottgardt of Germany (12.26 seconds) and Simran (12.33).

Oksana Boturchuk of Ukraine was the fourth and the last fastest runner to seal the place in the final after clocking 12.36 seconds. She finsihed second in her semifinal.

Simran was born prematurely and spent the next 10 weeks in an incubator where it was discovered that she is visually impaired. Coached by her husband Gajendra Singh, who works for Army Service Corps, she trains at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.

From being mocked for her visual impairment to winning gold in the recent World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe and now in the Paralympics final, Simran has come a long way. She finished 11th in 100m - T13 at the Tokyo Para Games in 2021 with a timing of 12.69.

Simran’s hard work and resilience helped her overcome physical and socio-economic challenges as she clinched the T12 200m gold in style at the World Championships in Japan in June.

Simran has been winning the National Championship and the Indian Open in both the 100m and 200m since 2022. She also won two silver medals in the Asian Para Games in Hangzhou last year.