Olden girl Lekhara is winner on all fronts
Life turned upside n for Avani Lekhara pretty when a car accident rend her immobile as an ar-old but what the tragedy d not do was take away her her family’s resolve to be a h above the circumstances. khara sustained severe spiord injuries in the accident 12 but she took it upon hero steer the course, helped rously by her father’s tence that she take up ting. trainee of former Olympian ter Suma Shirur, Lekhara me India’s first woman medallist at the Paralympic es in Tokyo on Monday n she shot a total of 249.6 in 0m Air Rifle Standing SH1. oing so, the 19-year-old ter from Jaipur created a Paralympics record and equalled the world record. e wasn’t quite taken by the of being a full-time shooter after reading Abhinav ra’s autobiography ‘A Shot lory’, her deal with the pren sport was sealed. rtly inspired by the story of a’s first individual Olympic -medallist besides her own
work and dedication, ara crafted her own piece story at her very first Paraic appearance. the Tokyo Paralympics oached, the unrelenting ID-19 pandemic only comted the journey to glory, y affecting her essential iotherapy routine. “As to help me exercise and stretch my legs. Since then it’s my parents who have to help me with those exercises. They do the best they can.” At the time she was paralysed waist down, studies seemed to be the only option but life had other ideas in store for her. Once she picked up the rifle during the 2015 summer vacations, the vivacious woman from Jaipur did pretty well and then began a journey that would one day see her script history by claiming the biggest prize at the sport’s grandest stage.
Going through the pages of Bindra’s autobiography only strengthened her resolve to realise her goal once she decided on one, which happened after her her initial success in state and national level competitions.
Ranked fifth in the world, Lekhara is set to compete in three more events -- mixed air the world. I dedicate my medal to all the Indians. It is just the start. I have a lot of competition days ahead and more medals to come. I have three more matches and am focusing on them and giving my 100 percent.”
Having gone through a lot of ups and downs in her career, Lekhara said she did not want to dwell on the past or think about the future. “I just stay in the present. I was thinking about one shot at a time today,” she said of her gold medal performance.
She had earlier won a bronze medal at the WSPS World Cup in Bangkok, 2017 and bettered the colour of the medal to silver in the next two World Cups in Osijek, Croatia in 2019 and Al Ain, UAE this year.
Shirur is with her in Tokyo after guiding Indian rifle shooters Divyansh Singh Panwar and