The day at the World Para Athletics Championships was marked by India’s dominance in javelin. Yesterday, in the F46, India pocketed three of the top four positions with Rinku Hooda and Sunder Singh Gurjar claiming the gold and silver.
This afternoon, in the F44, the story got repeated. The field of nine had four Indians and all strong contenders. Lead changed between Sandip Sanjay Sargar and Sandeep Chaudhary through the rounds. Both had their best in the fifth throw, with Sandip’s 62.82m helping him to clinch the gold.
Sandeep, who was in pole position till then, had to be satisfied with a silver – 62.67m. Sandeep, who finished fourth at three successive Paralympic Games, has shown great strength to keep going. Despite putting in his season’s best of 61.94m in his last throw, Pushpinder Singh could not pip Brazilian Edenilson Roberto, who took the bronze. The other Indian, Mahendra Gurjar ended seventh with a throw of 57.84m, well below his season’s best of 61.17 mts
Finally, when Sumit Antil took the field for the F64 category, him getting the gold was almost a certainty. The wide gap between him and the rest of the field could be seen from the final score sheet. Sumit clocked 71.37m to win the gold, with none of his valid throws being less than 65m. The Colombian silver medalist had his best of 48.38m. Sumit is a legend in para- sports, and such kind of clear domination is largely unseen. He holds the world record with a throw of 73.29m and is the only para athlete to cross the 70 mt mark.
Talking of javelin dominance, there is still Navdeep Singh, the Paris Paralympics gold medalist in F41, and Pardeep Kumar, the Asian Para Games silver medalist in F54.
Apart from the para athletes, it was great also to see Neeraj Chopra and Sachin Yadav in the stands cheering for the Indian athletes.
In the morning session, Yogesh Kathunia brought in a silver medal in the F56 discus throw. He was up against world record holder Brazilian Claudiney Batista, who again proved to be too good.
Despite her season’s best throw, F34 shot putter Bhagyashree Jadhav finished sixth. T12 long jumper Vishu also ended up sixth. Akira Nandan Banothu made it to the finals of the T38 400m run.
Elsewhere, the day saw five world records at the stadium, adding to the four on earlier days. At the end of day four, India stood fourth in the medal tally with nine medals including four golds.
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