Hajharia gunning for hird gold at Paralympics
Devendra Jhajharia t have turned 40, but those ts thrown at him when he just a child are still fresh for Jhajharia was eight when eft hand was amputated coming in contact with a -power electric wire while bing a tree in his village ru in Rajasthan. Called k” by his friends after the ap, the boy picked up the in to fight that label. heard so many things as a Jhajharia said. “I wouldn’t lowed to enter the ground. y used to laugh at me, joke t me, saying ‘tera ek haat hi hai, throw kaise karega don’t have one hand, how you throw)?” ajharia’s one hand has n India two gold medals at Paralympics and will be ing for a third at the Tokyo lympics beginning from ust 24. e is the only Indian with individual gold medals in r the Olympics or the Parapics, winning the javelin w in the F46 category at the Athens and 2016 Rio Paraic Games. Both were world rd throws--62.15m in ns and 63.97m in Rio. hat Rio mark stands in danf being wiped off again in o, with Jhajharia touching 1m during a national selectrial last month. he lockdown from March year forced him to remain is village for around five the Sports Authority of India centre in Gandhinagar in July. In November, Covid-19 struck him. “I’ve never been away from my javelin for as long as I have in the last year or so. Battling Covid was a challenge. I gained weight being inactive, and have shed 7kgs after getting back to training,” he said.
With uncertainty around the Paralympics during that time, Jhajharia, nearing 40 with almost two decades of competing at the top level, could well have given himself a pat on the back and hung up his boots.
What stopped him from doing so? “Honestly, I don’t know anything else apart from javelin throw. The one-year delay (of the Paralympics) forced me to think hard about my future. But I would watch my old videos and photos, aur ek josh aata tha usko dekh kar (it would energise me).
“And more than anything paigner in Rio to India’s most successful Paralympian expected to deliver again in Tokyo. What he has lost in agility and speed with age is compensated by better technique and training efficiency.
“There is a lot of planning involved in my training now, which wasn’t the case earlier. I’m also a bit stronger technically,” Jhajharia said.
What has also evolved is the awareness about Paralympics and para sports in the country. “In 2004 before heading to Athens, there was only one person who came to send me off at the airport: my father. Today, the Prime Minister is speaking to me and my family before I go to Tokyo. I feel like the entire country is behind me,” Jhajharia said. What hasn’t changed, however, is a promise. Before the Rio Paralympics, Jhajharia told his daughter that he’d come back with a gold