Devendra And Sunder Win Silver & Bronze In Javelin Throw As Paralympics Medal Glory Continues With India Winning Four Medals On Monday

New Delhi: It was a glorious Monday for India with the country winning not one but four medals in a day at the crack of dawn. While India’s Avani Lakhera became the first Indian woman in history to win a Paralympic Gold medal for the country, India’s domination in Athletics also continued in the Javelin and Discus Throw events.

Taking a leaf out of Sunday’s brilliant performance, India’s legendary Javelin Thrower Devendra Jhajhariya, who trains at Sports Authority of India - Gandhi Nagar, went on to get his third Paralympic Medal in Tokyo and won the prestigious Silver medal in the F46 category with a personal best throw of 64.35m. What is more, India also went on to win the Bronze medal at the same event, with Rajasthan’s Sundar Singh Gurjar throwing his season-best throw of 64.01m to take the 3rd spot. While the two Javelin Throwers were making waves on one side of the Tokyo Stadium, debutant Yogesh Kathuniya was ensuing that India won their third Athletics medal of the day on the other side of the stadium.  Yogesh secured the silver medal for India with a Season Best throw of 44.38m in the Men's Discus Throw F56 category and was dominating throughout the event.

All three athletes were considered strong medal contenders going into Tokyo Paralympics and lived up to their expectations. Before leaving for Tokyo earlier this month, Sundar had said that he was in good form and was heading to Tokyo Paralympics with the aim to win the medal that he had missed back in Rio Olympics.

He had further added “I have been with TOPS since 2016 and since the beginning, both TOPS and SAI have supported me a lot and even recently gave me financial help to get prosthesis for weight running and a javelin that helped me a lot with my throws. I am really thankful to them for all the support they have provided me.” 

Both Devendra and Sundar have been part of Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) and have been funded by the government for International Competitions, National Coaching camps with Sports Science support and in Sundar’s case financial assistance for procurement of prosthesis, equipment and grant of coach fees.

The youngster from Haryana, Yogesh took up Discus Throwback in 2017 had won the bronze medal in World Para Athletics Championship, 2019 and is the first Indian male to win a Paralympic medal in Discus Throw since Joginder Singh Bedi won the bronze medal in 1984 Paralympics.

Just like Devendra and Sundar, Yogesh too has been part of SAI’s TOPS initiative which has funded four International Competitions for Yogesh and provided National Coaching Camps with sports science support.

Get the latest updates on Olympics 2020, Olympics 2020 Medal Tally, Live Cricket Score . Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for more sports updates.