Avani Lekhara wins gold medal in Tokyo Paralympic
New Delhi: The outstanding performance in the 10m Air Rifle shooting helped Avani Lekhara to won a gold medal at Tokyo Paralympic. Indian paralympic shooter Avani Lekhara created history at the Tokyo Paralympics on Monday when she became the first woman from the country to bag a paralympic gold medal.
Avani defeated China’s Zhang Cuiping and Ukraine’s Iryna Shchetnik in the women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 title.
The 19-year-old finished with a world record-equalling total of 249.6, which is also a new Paralympic record.
She is the fourth Indian athlete to win a Paralympics gold. In 1972 – swimmer Murlikant Petkar won a gold medal at Paralympic. In 2004 and 2016 – Javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia bagged a gold medal and high jumper Thangavelu Mariyappan in 2016.
On the winning of a Gold medal by Avani Lekhara – PM Modi tweeted that “Phenomenal performance @AvaniLekhara! Congratulations on winning a hard-earned and well-deserved Gold, made possible due to your industrious nature and passion towards shooting. This is truly a special moment for Indian sports. Best wishes for your future endeavours.”
This is Avani’s first major international medal. She had finished fourth in the last world championship in 2019. Appearing in her maiden Paralympics, Avani, ranked fifth in the world, consistently shot 10s in both the competition stages.
