Avani Lekhara made a historic win in the Tokyo Paralympic games 2020. She won a gold medal in the women’s R2 – 10m Air rifle shooting event. With this victory, she became the first Indian woman to win the gold medal in the Paralympic games. The Indian Para rifle shooter has made the whole nation proud by bringing gold to India.
Avani also became the fourth Indian athlete to win the gold medal in the Paralympic games after Murlikant Petkar in 1972, Devendra Jhajharia, the javelin thrower who won in the 2004 and 2016 Paralympic Games, and Thangavelu Mariyappan in the 2016 Rio Paralympic games in the High Jump event. It was the first medal for India in shooting event in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics games.
The Indian para rifle shooter had a total of 621.7 points and she was ranked in the 7th position in the qualification round of the women’s 10m Air rifle shooting event. But in the final, she equalled the world record of 249.6 points. Avani Lekhara’s 249.6 points also became the new record in the Paralympic games. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also made a tweet to congratulate the first Indian woman to win a gold medal in the Paralympics.
Incredible! Avani Lekhara🇮🇳 has won India's first #Paralympics medal in #ShootingParaSport and it's #gold https://t.co/s333xEtOvN
— #Tokyo2020 (@Tokyo2020) August 30, 2021
“Phenomenal performance, Congratulations on winning a hard-earned and well-deserved Gold, made possible due to your industrious nature and passion towards shooting,” PM Narendra Modi tweeted.
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.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 30, 2021
Avani has also participated in the other shooting events in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic games. She will be competing in Women’s R8 – 50m rifle 3 positions shooting and in the Mixed R3 – 10m and 50m rifle prone shooting event along with Sidhartha Babu and Deepak Saini.
