Mumbai: The four Indian Rio Paralympics medal winners – Devendra Jhajharia, Mariyappan Thangavelu, Deepa Malik and Varun Singh Bhati – were felicitated here Monday by a host of personalities, including cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar.
Jhajharia won gold medal in men’s javelin throw, Thangavelu clinched a gold in men’s high jump T42 while Bhati won a bronze in the same event. Deepa became the first Indian woman to bag a medal in Paralympics by clinching a silver in women’s F53 shot put.
Each of the medal winners received a cheque of `15 lakh. It was also announced that each of the other medal winners in earlier editions of Paralympics will also be presented with the same amount.
These include Murlikant Petkar (1972), Bhimrao Keskar, Joginder Singh Bedi (both 1984), Rajinder Singh Rahelu (2014) and HN Girisha (2012).
The contributors to the corpus of fund formed by organisers GoSports Foundation include Tendulkar, V Chamundeshwarnath (president, Hyderabad District Badminton Association), Nimmagadda Prasad (industrialist and co-owner Kerala Blasters), Dr Azad Moopen (CMD, Aster DM Healthcare), Sanjay Ghodawat (chairman, Sanjay Ghodawat Group) and Abhay Gadgil (director, Abhay Gadgil Constructions).
Speaking on the occasion, Malik said, “It is sad that every time we say Paralympics, we have to add it is Olympics Paralymics. It is still not understood that Paralympics also mean Olympic-level competition (for the differently-abled). I am grateful to Sachin Sir (for the initiative).”
While thanking the organisers Devendra stated that such awards would spur him to work that much harder. “I broke my own world record after 12 years in Rio. I went to Finland for training and used to train for eight hours every day which is the longest training of my life,” he informed.
After taking his cheque, Thangavelu said, “I wanted to achieve something and take care of my mother (who is a wage labourer) and therefore I started looking for a career in sports. I started participating in high jump when I was in the eighth standard. Thankfully, now my mother won’t have to work anymore.”
Press Trust of India