MPSC 2026 Prelims Paper-I · Question 97 of 100

Correct — option (2), Gold 75, Silver 69, Bronze 64. India topped the medal table at the New Delhi leg of the World Para Athletics Grand Prix 2026, held over three days at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and concluding on 13 March 2026, with 208 medals in all: 75 gold, 69 silver and 64 bronze. Russia was a distant second with 35 medals, of which 15 were gold. Look carefully at what the four options do, because it changes how you should attack the question. Every option uses the same three numbers — 75, 69 and 64 — merely rearranged. That means the total is 208 in all four cases, and any attempt to solve by recalling India's overall haul will fail. The question is not about how many medals India won; it is about which medal each number belongs to. The distribution that actually occurred descends from gold to bronze: most golds, fewer silvers, fewest bronzes. That is worth pausing on, because it is not the usual shape of a national medal tally. It reflects how lopsided this meet was — India entered by far the largest contingent, 219 athletes in a field of roughly 257 from eight nations, so Indian athletes were often competing mainly against each other, filling several places on the same podium and, more often than not, the top one. Among the golds was Preethi Pal's in the 200 metres; she had already won two bronze medals on the track at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. So the reasoning route is: recognise that the three numbers are fixed and only the ordering is in question, then recall that the ordering was strictly descending — 75, 69, 64 from gold to bronze. Option (1) is the exact reverse of the truth, option (3) swaps silver and bronze, and option (4) swaps gold and silver. Only option (2) has all three in place.

• (1)Gold - 64, Silver - 69, Bronze - 75 — This is the mirror image of the correct distribution — ascending from 64 golds to 75 bronzes instead of descending from 75 golds to 64 bronzes. It is the most seductive wrong option because an ascending tally is the more usual pattern for a national team at an international meet, where finals are harder to win than places. At this home leg the reverse held: India won more golds than silvers and more silvers than bronzes.
• (3)Gold - 75, Silver - 64, Bronze - 69 — The gold figure is right at 75, but silver and bronze have been exchanged: India won 69 silvers and 64 bronzes, not the other way round. This is the near-miss for a candidate who has fixed the headline number — the golds — and then guessed the tail of the tally. Since all four options share the same three numbers, getting one of them in place is worth nothing on its own.
• (4)Gold - 69, Silver - 75, Bronze - 64 — This keeps the bronze figure at 64 but swaps gold and silver, giving India more silvers than golds. It fails on the very feature that made the meet notable — India took the top step of the podium more often than the second, finishing with 75 golds against 69 silvers, in a competition it dominated with much the largest contingent.

The World Para Athletics Grand Prix is an international series of para athletics meets sanctioned by the body that governs the sport under the International Paralympic Committee. Individual legs are hosted by member countries, and results count towards world rankings and qualification pathways, which is why national federations enter large squads at a home leg. New Delhi's leg in 2026 ran for three days at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and closed on 13 March, drawing roughly 257 athletes from eight nations — India, Russia, Nepal, Bhutan, Hong Kong China, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Egypt. India's entry of 219 athletes was by a wide margin the largest, and the final tally reflected that: 208 medals for India against 35 for Russia in second place and three for Bosnia and Herzegovina in third.

Reading a medal tally of this shape needs a little care, and the care itself is examinable understanding. A total of 208 medals is not comparable with a total from a Paralympic Games or a World Championship, because a Grand Prix leg has many events, many classification classes within each event, and a field dominated by the host nation. The number tells you about the scale of India's entry as much as about competitive depth. What it does mark is the growth of Indian para athletics over the last decade, of which the clearest measure is India's 29 medals at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games — its best performance at a Paralympics — and the emergence of athletes such as Preethi Pal, a two-time medallist on the track at those Games, who took the 200 metres gold in New Delhi.

• At the World Para Athletics Grand Prix 2026 leg in New Delhi, India won 208 medals — 75 gold, 69 silver and 64 bronze — and topped the medal table
• The meet was held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium over three days, concluding on 13 March 2026
• About 257 athletes from eight nations competed — India, Russia, Nepal, Bhutan, Hong Kong China, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Egypt — with India entering 219 athletes, much the largest contingent
• Russia finished second with 35 medals, including 15 gold; Bosnia and Herzegovina were third with three medals
• Preethi Pal, who won two bronze medals on the track at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, took gold in the 200 metres at this meet

• Solving a medal-tally question by recalling the total. When every option uses the same three numbers, the total is identical across all of them and only the assignment to gold, silver and bronze can decide the answer
• Assuming a national tally must rise from gold to bronze. That is the usual shape at a global championship but not at a home leg dominated by one contingent, where the same country can occupy several places in a final
• Comparing a Grand Prix haul with a Paralympic haul. The event structures and field sizes are entirely different, and a large Grand Prix number is not evidence of a comparable competitive standard

Sports current-affairs questions in MPSC papers usually ask one of three things: who won a named event, where an event was held, or what a country's medal tally was. The tally version is the hardest and is set exactly as it is here — with the same digits permuted across the options, so that partial recall earns nothing. The efficient preparation is to store the tally as an ordered triple, gold first, and to note whether the sequence rises or falls; that single feature separates the correct option from its mirror image, which is always offered.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  At which venue was the New Delhi leg of the World Para Athletics Grand Prix 2026 held ?

  • (a)Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium
  • (b)Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium
  • (c)Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium
  • (d)Talkatora Stadium

  Answer(b) Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium — the three-day meet closed there on 13 March 2026, with India topping the medal table on 208 medals from a contingent of 219 athletes.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which country finished second in the medal table at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix 2026 in New Delhi ?

  • (a)Nepal
  • (b)Egypt
  • (c)Russia
  • (d)Serbia

  Answer(c) Russia — second with 35 medals, of which 15 were gold, well behind India's 208. Bosnia and Herzegovina were third with three medals.