After battling all odds, paralympian Devendra Jhajharia created history for India by giving the country its maiden gold medal in the World Paralympic Championships in the javelin throw in the F-47 category event at Lyon in France.
According to the information received, the 32-year-old Devendra, whose left arm was amputated following an accident, won the gold medal on Sunday by flinging the javelin to 57.04 metres. Notably, this is his personal best performance.
The Indian who is a class-IV employee with the Railways, received some tough competition from Iralian Mirshekari Abdolrasoul, who bettered his personal mark of 51.34m too by pegging the spear at 52.62m for silver. Ismail Mahmoud of Egypt won the bronze with a throw of 50.22m.
An elated Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) president Sultan Ahmed declared a cash award of Rs.5,00,000 for Devendra. In addition, recently he was adjudged with the Padma Shri.
Also an MP from Trinamool Congress, Ahmed opined that he thinks Devendra's gold medal will improve the paralympic athletes in the country. We have a huge wealth of talent in the country and they have to support them. They are thankful to the sports ministry as well as the Sports Association of India (SAI) for all support they gave to the athletes for training purpose.
Devendra hails from Rajasthan's Churu district, which is the gateway to Thar desert. He hauled the world record in the F-46 category to his name when he hurled the javelin to 62.15m in Athens Paralympics in 2004. Devendra is the son of Ram Singh, a farmer who was passionate about sports from his school days and used to train in the scorching heat of Thar-desert.
Devendra stated that sport is where whole life can be compressed into a few hours, where the emotions of a lifetime can be felt on an acre or two of ground. This is the place where a person can suffer and die and ascend again on six miles of trails through a park.
Devendra and his coach Ripudaman Singh Aulak, a Dronacharya Awardee in javelin came together in 1997. Later, he shifted to the nearby town of Kasab for better training facilities. From this point, he never looked back and shortly started training at National Institute of Sports (NIS) Patiala. Devendra opined that sport is a theatre where sinner can turn into a saint and a common man can convert into an uncommon hero, where the past and the future combine with the present. Devendra thanked Indian Railways who permitted him to practice throughout the year, but is upset with the indifference of the corporate sector. He revealed that he requested for sponsorship 3-4 times but they weren't responsive. So he abandoned pursuing them. He thinks that the private sector has better finance and resources to invest in sports unlike the state and central governments but unluckily the former hardly responds when they approach them.
Devendra believes that para-athletes don't receive their due in India. He remarked that he is the sole gold medalist in javelin. But the status of this game has still not improved. According to him, both the Olympics and the Paralympics share a similar status. But in case of normal Olympics medalist the pension is of Rs.10,000 while the paralympic winners receive just Rs.5,000. In addition, there are 101 olympic winners who are supposed to get pension from the government but around 50 of them don't get it at all.
