India’s Sachin Sarjerao Khilari has defended his men’s shot put gold medal in Class F46 setting a new Asia-wide record at the World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan on Wednesday. The feat helped India surpass its previous best at the global competition.
Beside Sachin’s gold, dalambir A bronze medal in the Men’s Club Throwing F51 category took India’s medal tally to 12 (5 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze).
With such an impressive performance, India keeps its third place behind China (18 gold, 16 silver, 14 bronze) and Brazil (17 golds;8 silvers;5bronze)as per below chart.
Another set of medals was added by Sachin who earlier managed to surpass their best ever performances which won them ten medals (3gold;4silver;3bronze)at Paris Olympics.
Sachin heaved the iron ball to a distance of 16.30 meters thus breaking his own Asian record of 16.21 meters that he set during last year’s World Para Athletics Championships in Paris.Paris saw him qualify for paralympics too.
Para Athletics’ category F46 is designed for athletes whose one or both arms are moderately impacted or missing altogether. Such Athletes should transfer power from their hips and legs into the throw.
A native of Kalagani village in Sangli district of Maharashtra state, Sachin had a misfortune mishap while studying leading to disability on his left arm.
The squat built man lost muscle tissue to gangrene at age 34 and despite numerous surgeries, his arm never got back to normalcy.
Dharambir gradually improved his throwing skills in the final of men’s club throw F51 thereby pushing the club distance upwards up to 33.61 yards whereby he took away a bronze from his fifth but penultimate effort.
Serbia’s Zelijko Dimitrijevic broke the competition record with a throw of 34.20m to win the gold medal, while Mexico’s Mario Santana Hernandez took the season’s best The best time was 33.62m to win the silver medal.
The F51 Men’s Discus event is a category meant for athletes with serious injuries of the main and limbs.
Such competitors do sit down throws using only their arms and shoulders.
Only those athletes who are most affected within this class will qualify as F51s.
On Tuesday, India won five medals taking its total tally to ten (4gold;4silver;2bronze). Currently, China tops the medal table, followed by Brazil.
“I am confident that I will be on the podium,” said Sumit Antil, Hangzhou Asian Games gold medallist in his conversation with PTI.
Kobe-based Sachin added: “I am looking forward to winning a gold at these Championships. I have also qualified for Paralympics in Paris so I’m hoping to win another gold there”
With three days remaining in the tournament, India is hopeful to win more medals including gold as Satya Narayan head coach says they are very optimistic about it all.
“The aim now is two additional golds which would take us up to 17 medals,” stated Satyanarayan
Sumit Antil defended his title of world champion in javelin throwing in F64 category at the World Para Athletics Championship held on Tuesday while Tangavelu Mariyappan and Ekta Bhyan earned themselves gold medals elsewhere as Indian team climbed up onto third line of World Para Athletics Championships leaders’ board .
Antill threw a spear weighing 69.50 m which brought him first place again after he had already received two other awards during Tokyo Paralympics and World Para Athletics Championships 2023 respectively.
Thereby, the Haryana athlete aged 25 years continued his domination worldwide in F64 javelin event. This also makes him the leading world record holder after his last year gold medal throwing of 73.29m during Paralympic Asian Games at Hangzhou, China.
Apart from this, he holds the World Para Athletics Championships record of 7083m which he achieved while clinching a golden medal in Paris last Paralympics in 2023.
His countryman Sandeep came third with a throw of 60.41 meters in the same competition, Dulan Kodithuwakku from Sri Lanka won silver with a time of 66.49 meters.
