Rajasthan’s gems, Avani Lekhara, Devendra Jhajharia and Sundar Singh Gurjar, have won Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for India, respectively, at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. As Lekhara went on to become the first Indian female athlete to bag gold, two-time gold-winning Javelin thrower, Jhajharia won silver this year, with Gurjar chipping in with a bronze. With a total of eight medals bagged by Indians in the Tokyo Paralympics 2020, the country has leapfrogged to the 26th position on the medal table.
The ‘Golden Girl’ of Rajasthan!
Pink City girl and an RU law student, 19-year-old Avani had met with a terrible accident at the age of 11, which paralysed her from the waist down. But she still managed to become India’s first female athlete to win a gold medal in the Paralympics and Olympics too, at large. In the qualifying round of Tokyo 2020, Avani commenced her series of shots with 103 and went on to score 102.8, 104.9, 102.1 and 104.5, scoring a total of 621.7 points and acing a gold medal.
Another ‘goal digger’ of Rajasthan
Javelin Thrower Devendra Jhajharia, born in Rajasthan’s Churu district, broke his own record of 63.97 m by pulling off a personal best of 64.35m, which won him a silver in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. After losing his arm to an electric wire at the mere age of 8, Jhajharia made tremendous efforts to win gold in 2004 and 2016, previous to this year’s silver.
After winning his maiden gold medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics, with a remarkable throw of 62.15 m, he went ahead to win another gold for India in 2016. Gold and silver medals in World Championships, silver in the Asian Para Games, one gold at 2002 FESPIC Games in South Korea and the other at the 2016 Asia-Oceania Championship in Dubai, have given a push to Jhajharia’s career.
Welcoming the Bronze home
Hailing from the Karauli district in Rajasthan, Sundar Singh Gurjar, moved to Jaipur to fulfil his dreams of becoming a renowned sportsperson but had to encounter many difficulties. Trained by Mahavir Singh, a renowned coach of Jaipur, Sundar used to compete in Javelin Throw in the General Category till 2015. On a stormy night in 2016, a tin shed blew up and fell on Sundar which led his left arm to be amputated and changed the course of his life leaving him to be paralysed.
Sundar applied for Paralympics in the same year but could not get through due to late application, which demotivated him for a while. Later, not only did he participate in Javelin Throw but also mastered the art of Discus Throw and Shot Put and went on to win gold medals for all three sports at the 2017 FAZAA IPC Athletics Grand Prix. In the ongoing Paralympics, Gurjar has moved on to win a bronze medal with a 64.01m Javelin Throw in Tokyo, Japan.
India’s Tokyo 2020 Paralympics medal winner
Other than the above-stated para-athletes, Javelin Thrower Sumit Antil won a Gold Medal, Discus Thrower Yogesh Kathuniya clinched silver, Tennis Player Bhavina Patel won a silver medal, Nishad Kumar won silver in High Jump T47 and Singhraj Adana bagged a bronze medal in ’10m Air Pistol Shooting SH1′.
