They survived mine blasts. Now, Armymen Soman Rana and Pardeep Kumar are World Championship medallists

On Friday, Pardeep created history by becoming the first-ever Army para athlete to win a medal – a bronze – at the World Championships. Twenty-four hours later, Soman won a bronze medal in the men’s shot put F57.

This is the first-ever global medal for 42-year-old Soman, who finished fourth at the 2024 Paris Paralympics and won a silver medal at the 2022 Asian Para Games. He hurled the shot put to a distance of 14.69m to clinch the bronze medal.

“It is a big medal to win for me after the heartbreak at the Paris Paralympics last year. I was training well before the competition, so it is good to put the training to use,” Soman told The Indian Express after winning his first-ever global medal.

After more than two decades in the Army, Soman started para athletics in 2017 when he first visited the Army Paralympic node to get a new prosthetic limb at the Artificial Limb Centre (ALC). “I was a middleweight boxer for five years at the national level and served in my unit in missions as well before the landmine blast. After the blast, I started doing administration work for my unit,” said Soman. “I heard about para sports on the visit to Pune in 2017, and I thought I could bring laurels for India in this field too. That’s how I started with para athletics.”

Being a boxer in his early days meant that his upper body was strong. His coach at the Paralympic node, Subedar Major Rakesh Rawat, used it to make him a shot putter. “Since Soman was a boxer before his injury, he had a very strong core as well as back muscles. So coming to shot put, we worked on the flexibility of the upper body as well as developing the strength of his throwing hand to gain the distance through the minor flick of the fingers to push the shot put at a greater distance,” Rawat told The Indian Express.

After the bronze medal on Saturday, Rana set his eyes on next year’s Asian Para Games. “I had made the national record of 15.02m, and I know I can add more to this mark in the coming months. The target would be to win the gold in the Asian Para Games next year and listen to the national anthem at the podium,” shared Rana, who has a tattoo of the Tokyo Paralympics on his right arm.

Apart from Rana, Hokato Sema and Shubham Juyal were also in the same event but finished sixth and seventh, respectively.

Debutant Pardeep wins bronze in men’s discus throw

For 26-year-old Pardeep, it was all dark after he survived a landmine blast in Srinagar during a patrolling duty in 2019. However, when he went to get a prosthetic leg at the ALC, he was introduced to the world of para sports.

“At that point in time, I had no idea that if I could come back from the blast. But everyone at the hospital told me that I can do sports, which motivated me,” the Hisar native told The Indian Express. “During my recovery, I visited the prosthetics centre to get artificial limbs and came to know about para sports. Once I saw how the para athletes train at the centre, I decided to take it up.”

At the Army Paralympic node, Pardeep was introduced to both javelin and discus throw in the F64 Category, an event for athletes with lower limb impairment where they compete with the help of a prosthetic leg. “I tried everything from shot put to discus to Javelin under the guidance of my coach, Ravinder and then decided to go ahead with Javelin and discus,” said Pardeep.

However, despite starting the sport in 2019, Pardeep was not getting a chance to compete at the top level as the F64 category was usually clubbed with the F44 category, where athletes have impaired limbs as compared to prosthetic limbs in Pardeep’s category.

“Pardeep has been with us for the past six years. But for the first time, he got his chance, and I was hoping he would medal in both Javelin and Discus throw, but that is for next time now,” Lt Col Nitten Mehta of the Army Paralympic node told this paper.

With his first-ever global medal in the kitty, Pardeep wants to participate in bigger tournaments. “All I want now is to play against the best in the world, and this medal proves that I belong to the highest level in para athletics,” he concluded.