Even when our focus might have been on cricket given the fanatics we are, our athletes went on to win nine medals for the country at the World Para Athletics Championships.?
Sandeep Chaudhary/PTI
The medal haul was also India's best ever showing at the championships, beating the previous record of five medals in the 2017 edition.?India won two gold, two silver and five bronze besides a few fourth-place finishes, securing 13 qualifying spots for the?Tokyo 2020?Paralympics.
These achievements are the ones we should talk about. The determination and resilience of our athletes is commendable, and they are inspiring a generation with their performances of grit and grind.??
Asian Para Games?2018 champion javelin thrower?Sandeep Chaudhary?was the pick of the bunch as he again?showed why he is rated highly. He set a new world record (F44) on the way to clinching gold with a personal best of 65.80m in men¡¯s javelin F64 category.
In the same event, India had a one-two podium finish with Sumit Antil taking the silver (62.88m) and a world record in his own category (F64).
Another promising?javelin?thrower?Sundar Singh Gurjar defended his?Worlds title in men¡¯s javelin F46 with a season¡¯s best distance of 61.22 metres.
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It was a performance?reminiscing of the great spirit these athletes have shown throughout their life. These are the achievements that deserve?all the praise and respect.?
The bronze medallists for India were:?Mariyappan Thangavelu?(men¡¯s high jump T63), Yogesh Kathuniya (men¡¯s discus throw F56), Nishad Kumar (men¡¯s high jump T47), Ajeet Singh (men¡¯s Javelin F46) and Vinay Kumar Lal (men¡¯s 400m T44)
Ekyta Bhyan (women¡¯s club F51), Vinod Kumar (men¡¯s discus throw F52) and Praveen Kumar (men¡¯s high jump T64) and Rinku (men¡¯s javelin F46) missed out on medals but secured Tokyo 2020 spots.