Journalism of Courage
Shooter Avani Lekhara scripted history as she became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Paralympics, firing her way to the top of the podium in the R-2 women's 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 event. The 19-year-old from Jaipur, who sustained spinal cord injuries in a car accident in 2012, finished with a world record equalling total of 249.6, which is also a new Paralympic record. She is only the fourth Indian athlete to win a Paralympics gold after swimmer Murlikant Petkar (1972), javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia (2004 and 2016) and high jumper Mariyappan Thangavelu (2016). (Source: Reuters)
Javelin thrower Sumit Antil clinched India's second gold at the ongoing Paralympics, shattering the men's F64 category world record multiple times in a stunning Games debut performance on Monday. The 23-year-old from Sonepat in Haryana, who lost his left leg below the knee after he was involved in a motorbike accident in 2015, sent the spear to 68.55m in his fifth attempt, which was the best of the day by quite a distance and a new world record. In fact, he bettered the previous world record of 62.88m, also set by him, five times on the day. His last throw was a foul. His series read 66.95, 68.08, 65.27, 66.71, 68.55 and foul. Australian Michal Burian (66.29m) and Sri Lanka's Dulan Kodithuwakku (65.61m) took the silver and bronze respectively. The F64 category is for athletes with a leg amputation, who compete with prosthetics in a standing position. A student of Delhi's Ramjas College, Antil was an able-bodied wrestler before his accident which led to the amputation of his leg below the knee. A para athlete in his village initiated him to the sport in 2018. (Source: PTI)
Discus thrower Yogesh Kathuniya finished second as India surpassed its best ever medal tally at the Games on Monday. The 24-year-old, a B.Com graduate from New Delhi's Kirorimal College, sent the disc to a best distance of 44.38m in his sixth and last attempt to clinch the silver. Son of an Army man, Kathuniya suffered a paralytic attack at the age of eight which left him with coordination impairments in his limbs. (Source: PCI)
Bhavinaben Patel on Sunday became only the second Indian woman to win a medal at the Paralympics after she signed off with a historic silver following a 0-3 loss to world number one Chinese paddler Ying Zhou in the women's singles table tennis class 4 final in Tokyo (Source: SAI)
High jumper Nishad Kumar clinched a silver with an Asian record on Sunday. The 21-year-old Nishad, who is a farmer's son in Himachal Pradesh's Amb town, cleared 2.06m to win the silver in T47 class. Nishad, whose right hand got cut by a grass-cutting machine at his family's farm when he was an eight-year-old boy, cleared the same height of 2.06m with American Dallas Wise who was also awarded a silver. (Source: Reuters)
Praveen Kumar clinched the silver medal in the men's high jump T64 event of the Paralympics. The 18-year-old Kumar, competing in his debut Paralympics, set a new Asian record with a 2.07m jump to finish behind Great Britain's Jonathan Broom-Edwards, who notched up his season's best effort of 2.10m for the gold. "I can't explain how I feel. This jump was ecstatic. This is my first Paralympic Games and I am waiting to see what lies ahead," he said after the superb performance. This was also Kumar's personal best performance and his first major medal since taking up the sport in 2019. The teenager is a Noida resident and is now the youngest medal winner in the Indian contingent. (Source: Reuters)
Two-time gold-winning javelin throw veteran Devendra Jhajharia clinched a stupendous third Paralympic medal, a silver this time. The 40-year-old Jhajahria, already India's greatest Paralympian after winning gold medals in the 2004 and 2016 Games, pulled off a new personal best throw of 64.35m for the silver. Jhajahria, who lost his left hand after accidentally touching an electric wire while climbing a tree at the age of eight, bettered his own earlier world record (63.97m) but gold winner Sri Lankan Dinesh Priyan Herath Mudiyanselage (67.79m), who set a new world record, was too good for the entire field. (Source: AP)
Sundar Singh Gurjar also chipped in with a bronze, finishing behind Jhajharia in the men's javelin throw F46 final. The 25-year-old Gurjar, who lost his left hand in 2015 after a metal sheet fell on him at his friend's house, was third with a best effort of 64.01m. The Jaipur-based Gurjar had won gold in the 2017 and 2019 World Para Athletics Championships. He had also won a silver in the 2018 Jakarta Para Asian Games. (Source: Reuters)
Mariyappan Thangavelu, who won a gold five years ago in Rio, added a silver in Tokyo high jump. Mariyappan cleared 1.86m while American gold winner Sam Grewe succeeded in soaring above 1.88m in his third attempt. Kumar took the bronze with an effort of 1.83. "I could have won gold and claimed the world record. I came here with that aim. But the rain played spoilsport. It was a drizzle initially but after the 1.80m mark, it became heavy. The sock on my other leg (the impaired right leg) got wet and it was difficult to jump," Mariyappan, whose right leg was impaired after being crushed under a bus when he was just 5, said after the event. "In Rio, the weather was great and I won gold. I will try for gold and world record in Paris 2024," he added. (Source: SAI)
Along with Mariyiappan, Sharad Kumar, bagged the bronze medal for India in the same competiton. Sharad, whose leg was paralysed after he was administered a spurious polio vaccine as a toddler, revealed he was considering pulling out of the competition due to a knee problem. "I had an injury on my leg, meniscus dislocated (a type of knee injury) yesterday. I thought of pulling out today but spoke to my family back home. They said just go ahead. Told me to read Bhagawat Gita and focus on what I can do and not on what I have no control over," he said. (Source: Screenshot)
Avani Lekhara became the first Indian woman to win two Paralympic medals by claiming the 50m Rifle 3 Position SH1 bronze to add to an unprecedented gold she had secured earlier in the ongoing Games. The 19-year-old Lekhara, competing in her debut Games, qualified second for the event with a score of 1176, including 51 inner 10s. In the fiercely contested finals, Lekhara totalled 445.9 to finish ahead of Ukraine's Iryna Shchetnik, who let slip her grip on the medal spot with a poor third shot of 9.9 in the elimination. (Source: AP)
Singhraj Adana, who is afflicted with polio and was making his Games debut, shot a total of 216.8 to finish the event in the third place after qualifying for the eight-man final as the sixth best shooter. Hovering around the top three, Adana dropped out of contention with his poor 19th shot but managed to get back in the reckoning with his 20th attempt as China's Xiaolong Lou got 8.6. The shooter from Haryana's Bahadurgarh took to the sport only four years ago and had served as the chairman of the Sainik School in Faridabad. His grandfather was part of the country's freedom movement and served in the British Indian Army during the second world war. On Tuesday, he nearly missed out on the podium due to a poor 19th shot. But got his act together just in time. Adana was coming into the Games after winning gold at the 2021 Para Sport World Cup held in Al Ain, UAE, where he upstaged 2016 Rio Paralympics bronze medallist Server Ibragimov by 2.8 points to claim the top spot. During the COVID-19 lockdown, the polio-afflicted shooter's desperation to resume training had reached a point where he was not able to even get a good night's sleep and ended up building a range at home. "As I was not able to train, I started thinking that my dream of winning a medal is over. That's when my coaches suggested why not try building a range at home," Adana said in a media interaction organised by broadcaster Eurosport and the Paralympic Committee of India. "I was getting desperate and was not able to sleep at all because of the absence of training. So I approached my family with the idea and they were taken aback at first as it involved lakhs of rupees," he recalled. (Source: PCI)
Indian archer Harvinder Singh wins bronze medal in men's individual recurve event, beating Korean Kim Min Su. This is India's first ever Paralympics medal in archery. World number 23 Singh became the first athlete from India to win a gold medal in para archery at a major competition in Asian Games Jakarta 2018. Singh, who hails from a remote village Kaithal in Haryana, is an economics scholar from the Punjabi University. Hailing from a middle-class farming family, Singh had dengue at one-and-a-half years and a local doctor administered him with an injection that had an adverse effect and his legs stopped working properly since then.
Shooter Manish Narwal smashed the Paralympic record to clinch India's third gold in the ongoing Tokyo Games, while compatriot Singhraj Adana bagged the silver to make it a sensational one-two finish for the country here on Saturday. (Twitter)
The 19-year-old Narwal, who holds the world record in the category, shot a total of 218.2, a Paralympic record, to claim the yellow metal in P4 Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 event in his debut Games. (Twitter)
Pramod Bhagat claimed a historic badminton gold medal in men’s singles SL3 class after outclassing Great Britain’s Daniel Bethell 21-14, 21-17 in the summit clash at the Tokyo Paralympics on Saturday. With the win, the 33-year-old became the first Indian to win a gold medal in the sport. (File)
Manoj Sarkar bagged a bronze in men's singles SL3 class on Saturday after defeating Japan's Daisuke Fujihara in the third place play-off. In SL3 classification, athletes with lower limb impairment compete. (Twitter/Tokyo2020hi)
Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida) District Magistrate and shuttler Suhas Yathiraj's Paralympics run culminated with a silver medal for India on Sunday, with the journey also earning him a place in the annals of Indian Administrative Service (IAS). The 38-year-old Suhas, who was outdone by his 23-year-old top seed French rival Lucas Mazur in a thriller of a final, became the only IAS officer to have not only participated but also won a medal in the Paralympics. (Twitter)
Krishna Nagar secured a second gold medal in badminton after Suhas Yathiraj claimed a silver as it turned out to be a Super Sunday for the Indian badminton contingent at the Tokyo Paralympics. The 22-year-old Nagar, seeded second, defeated Hong Kong's Chu Man Kai 21-17 16-21 21-17 in the men's singles SH6 class final to retain his unbeaten run at the Games. (Twitter)
