Paralympics Shooter Avani Lekahar brought India its first medal in shooting at the Tokyo Paralympics in the women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 event held on Monday. qualifying the final rounds with a total score of 249.6 against 2016 Rio Games gold medallist Cuiping Zhang of China.
Appearing for her maiden Paralympics, Lekhra ranked fifth in the world. She is the fourth Indian athlete and the first woman to win Paralympic gold after swimmer Murlikant Petkar (1972), Javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia (2004 and 2016), and high jumper Thangavelu Mariyappan(2016).
In the meanwhile, discus thrower Yogesh Kathuniya clinched a silver medal in the men’s F56 event, while the javelin thrower Sundar Singh Gurjar bagged a bronze medal and Jhajharia clinched a silver medal in the F46 event. Yogesh, a 24-year-old, B.com Graduate from Delhi’s Kirorimal College, sent the discus to a distance of 44.38m in his sixth and last attempt that struck him silver.
The social media flooded with wishes and praises as India surpassed its best-ever Paralympics medal tally. PM Modi took to his microblogging site to congratulate Dev Jhajharia for his stupendous win. Praising Lekhra, Ace Shooter Abhinav Bindra also took to Twitter congratulating Lekhra for scripting history.
Lekhra brought India its fourth medal after Bhavina Patel picked up Silver in TT and Nishad Kumar scored Silver in High Jump on Saturday. This year India sent its largest Paralympics contingent to Tokyo Paralympics 2020. With 40 men and 14 women, 54 athletes represented India at the Paralympics games.
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