PARALYMPICS

Lekhara — with a golden touch and a world record.

At the Asaka shooting range in Tokyo, teenage shooter Lekhera overcame a nervous qualification round where she barely squeezed through, only to find such perfect form in the final that she even hit a 10.9 — the highest score— en route to a world record-equalling score of 249.6 and the gold in women’s 10m Air Rifle SH1 (athletes with lower limb impairment).

“I was just telling myself one thing…that I have to take one shot at a time,” Lekhara said over the phone. “There’s nothing else that matters now, just one shot at a time and just finish it.

“I can’t describe this feeling, I’m feeling like I’m on top of the world. It’s unexplainable.”

It was not only at the range in Tokyo that Lekhara overcame her fears and internal turmoil — they have been her constant companion since that fateful day in 2012 when she met with a traffic accident and suffered injuries in her spinal cord. It needed a surgery and she was paralysed below the waist. Before the accident, Lekhara was a playful child who loved dancing. “But after that everything changed,” she said. “I was very angry at my physical condition. I did not want to speak to anyone.”

Lekhara ’s parents desperately needed something to revive her spirit, so her father took her to an archery range and a shooting range. She immediately found a love for the rifle.

“To reach the top after recovering from massive physical setbacks suffered as a 10-year-old due to no fault of yours, shows the kind of mental resilience, courage and focus you possess .... A medal cannot come close to measuring the impact of what you have accomplished at such a young age,” Abhinav Bindra, India’s first individual Olympic gold medallist, said on Twitter.

A few hours after Lehkera’s golden run, at the Olympic stadium in Tokyo, Antil, also the victim of a traffic accident, added to India’s gold tally with his own record-breaking spree.

“I didn’t quite understand what was happening around me. It was like a dream,” Antil said over the phone.

Having breached the 65m mark in domestic competitions earlier this year, Antil was confident that he had the script to rewrite the record. “I knew I would break the world record. I wanted to touch 70m. Till the last throw, I was going for that 70m mark,” he said.

Not that he thought it would be a walk in the park. “It was a tough field. I was under a lot of pressure. I didn’t sleep well the entire night,” he said. He couldn’t sleep for months in 2015, when the youngster from Sonepat met with an accident while on his bike, which forced his left leg to be amputated from below the knee.

Antil had lost his father, who was in the Indian Air Force, when he was just seven and had always dreamt of joining the armed forces as a way of carrying forward the legacy.

“I hit the lowest point mentally during that period. My dream was to get into the army, which couldn’t happen after my disability. It broke my dreams, and it broke me along with it,” Antil said.

His mother pushed him to start picking up the pieces again. Antil, a big, muscular man, had an interest in sport, and was a wrestler — “but not at a good level” — before his accident. an In artificial 2016, Antil leg and got a fitted year later with he was made aware of para sports, and was introduced to the javelin by coach Virender Dhankhar. “The moment I saw the sport I knew that this is what I wanted to do. I never looked back after that,” Antil said.

With his final record-setting throw, Antil let out a huge roar, lifting both fists in the air.

“We are seeing some incredible performances in the Paralympics. Avani won gold medal, Sumit won the gold medal in javelin with a world record. Devendra bhaisahab, Sundar all of them are giving excellent performances. Somewhere I feel we are not following the Paralympics that much. So I would ask everyone to please follow and support them because despite such struggles they have gone there and winning medals for the country. Please support and cheer for them,” javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, who won India’s first ever track and field Olympics gold in Tokyo earlier this month, said in a video on Twitter.

Antil’s roar was similar to the one let out by another Indian, almost twice his age, in the same stadium hours earlier.

Devendra Jhajharia had seen his F46 world mark of 63,97m, set in Rio, overhauled by Sri Lanka’s Dinesh Herath with an effort of 67.79m. With throws of 60.28 and 60.62 from his first two attempts, the two-time Paralympic gold medallist knew he had to raise the bar, like he so often has in the past.

And javelin so Jhajharia loaded up his javelin moving up an down above his shoulder while taking deep breaths. Then came the big throw and a scream that lasted as long as the javelin swirled in the air. When it finally landed at 64.35m, his personal best, Jhajharia screamed again, his face a picture of fury. Moments later, that face wore a smile, and shouldered the Indian flag. At 40, Jhajharia had won his third Paralympic medal, a silver.

“Our at is athletes shine at the the proud Paralympics! The nations is proud of Sumit Antil’s record-breaking performance in the Paralympics. Congratulations Sumit for winning the prestigious Gold medal. Wishing you all he best for the future,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Antil over phone.