Sumit wins third World Para Athletics Championships gold in a row

Two-time reigning Paralympics champion Sumit Antil asserted his dominance and easily completed a hat-trick of World Para Athletics Championships titles.

His dominance in the F64 javelin competition can be gauged from the fact that not one athlete in the final came anywhere near his best attempt of 71.37 metres. The silver in the competition was won by Felipe Soto of Colombia with a best attempt of 48.38m. Kazakhstan’s Rufat Khabibullin finished third with a best throw of 47.14m. India’s Pradeep Kumar, who was in the mix for a podium place, finished fifth with a best attempt of 42.72m.

Antil was confident of winning the gold medal as his target was to clear the 75m mark. Though he missed his target, Antil set a new championship record. The 27-year-old later complained of a sore neck that stopped him from achieving his target for this competition.

“When I woke up the day before yesterday, my hand was not working. I don’t know what happened. I slept in the wrong position. I don’t know. But in the end, I am happy that I got the championship record,” Antil said after his win. “I was going all out in the warm-up before the competition. I felt a lot of pain in my neck. But I was trying to break the world record and the championship record. But when I broke it, I was very happy,” he added.

Antil’s gold medal was the second of the day for the home team as Sandip Sargar, competing in his first major competition, won the F44 javelin gold. Sargar equalled his personal best mark of 62.82m to finish ahead of teammate Sandeep Chaudhary, who won silver with a best attempt of 62.67m. However, world record holder Mahendra Gurjar finished seventh. Brazil’s Edilson Roberto won bronze in this competition.

Earlier, Yogesh Kathuniya threw 42.49m to win the silver medal in the discus throw F56 category. He finished behind Brazil’s five-time champion Claudiney Batista, while Greece’s Tzounis Kostantinos won the bronze medal.