Sumit Antil remembers the days when started off as a javelin thrower. As a kid growing up in Khewra village of Sonepat district of Haryana, he wanted to be a wrestler. But an accident in January 2015 led to his left leg getting amputated. A couple of years later, he got introduced to para athletics and javelin had his heart. Because, he admits, it seemed easy to throw a spear.
“The first time I held a javelin I threw around 35m,” Sumit tells the Indian Express from Hangzhou. “And in six months I went up to 55m. I think about this growth every now and then. When I started playing, I just wanted to break the World Record once. At that time it was around 59m, I never thought I would break it multiple times.”
Indeed, breaking a world record has become a habit of sorts for Sumit. This week at the Asian Para Games, the Tokyo Paralympics gold medallist broke his own mark, or rather smashed it, as he threw 73.29m to win gold in Men’s Javelin Throw Throw-F64. It is now the farthest anyone has ever thrown the javelin in para athletics, across all the categories, going past the F13 record of Aleksandr Svechnikov which was 71.01.
“Actually, there wasn’t too much pressure for winning the gold but there was quite a lot of pressure for the World Record because wherever I compete now that’s what everyone expects. Feels good that I could achieve that. The training felt really well. At the World Championships there was a small back injury so I was trying to play it safe. Injury prevention is actually the reason I was able to achieve this mark and the credit goes to my team for that, and they deserve more credit than me,” says Sumit who is supported by GoSports Foundation since 2019.
And of course, the first call he made after the gold was to his mother. “Mummy was so happy. She has sacrificed a lot for me, and struggled to make ends meet. Now she is happy that her son is doing the country proud and I can see it in her eyes,” he recalls.
The journey hasn’t been easy for Sumit but he remembers the tough days now with pride. In a technical sport like javelin, one of the most important aspects is blocking (stopping the movement while throwing) which is difficult with a prosthetic leg. “It took me a lot of time to learn blocking,” Sumit says. “You need speed, explosivity, but also body control is so important. To control my body with the prosthetic leg… even now I have a lot of difficulty. As I am throwing farther, I am increasing speed and then to control becomes even harder. I also have the fear that it shouldn’t break, I have to see going forward how to manage that.”
Sumit doesn’t have to change the prosthetic leg too often but he has to be mindful of the wear and tear. If it breaks, then the chances of injuries are high so he has to keep consulting with specialists. When he started off, he used to bleed a lot near the stump. And there were days when he couldn’t even walk to the ground to train so he would have to work out on his core muscles by removing the leg.”
“Even now it bleeds sometimes, the prosthesis people tell me that I can reduce the frequency of it but it won’t ever be over as long as I compete,” says Sumit. “What I am doing with the prosthetic leg is not normal, I am putting a lot of load on it, that the skin can’t handle. But now it doesn’t bother that much, it pains a little less. The stump is now used to it.”
For a man who is dominating the sport now, there was once an offer of a regular day job, but Sumit’s heart was always in sport. “When I was doing my graduation at Ramjas College, there was a job offer. But I knew a 9-5 job was not for me, because I just can’t sit in one place for that long. From my childhood, I was into sports. From where I am, kids are always into sports,” he says.
And now Sumit brushes shoulders with the best in the business. Not long after Neeraj Chopra won a historic Olympic gold in Tokyo, Sumit broke the World Record thrice in a night to win the Paralympic gold. Soon after Neeraj’s gold in Hangzhou, Sumit followed suit too.
“I didn’t speak to him after the gold but he commented on my Insta post and wished me,” Sumit says. “We keep discussing things every now and then. I congratulated him for Hangzhou gold and he told me I was also going to win too. It feels really good. But we don’t really discuss too much technique, every thrower is different. We don’t really speak too much javelin but what he is doing inspires everyone. Javelin ka mohol bahut badiya chal raha hai India mein, be it abled or para.”
A news report after his Tokyo gold often keeps coming up in discussions about Sumit, claiming that he wants to compete at the Olympics one day with able-bodied athletes. “I never said that I wanted to compete in Olympics,” he says with a wry laugh. “I just remember telling that my dream is to throw 80m one day. That’s my dream even now, whether I achieve that or not depends on my luck and fitness. But someone misunderstood that. It shows me as being overconfident, which I don’t want. If one day I throw 80, then we will see. I need to focus only on small steps.”
So when he competes again, he will come up with a new target. Whether it is 1 cm or 1 m better than his current World Record. As he says, “I remember even now that I have put up with so much pain. But when you achieve something big, this journey feels worthwhile.”
This week at the Asian Para Games, the Tokyo Paralympics gold medallist broke his own mark, or rather smashed it, as he threw 73.29m to win gold in Men's Javelin Throw Throw-F64. 
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