New Delhi: The gold medal in men’s javelin throw F46 category in the Rio Paralympics has made Devendra Jhajharia the most successful Indian para-athlete ever but he is in no mood to stop and is eyeing for a hat-trick of gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Devendra had won his first gold medal at Athens in 2004.
“I am not stopping here after the Rio success. I have enough gas in my tank and I will definitely go for a triple in Tokyo. I know my body and I can still train two hours in the morning and two in the evening rigorously every day, just like I did in the build-up to the Rio Paralympics,” Devendra stated here Friday.
“I have achieved two gold medals from Paralympics and both came in the course of setting world records. But I am not going to sit on these laurels. I want to add another gold, a triple, in Tokyo in 2020,” he added.
But the catch is it’s not certain that Devendra’s event may be in 2020 Paralympics once again just like it was not there in the 2008 and 2012 Paralympics.
“The International Paralympics Committee (IPC) decides which events (classifications) will be there in a Paralympics. There are a lot of classifications in the Paralympics based on the level of disability. IPC will decide next year during the World Athletics Championships in London (in July) which events will be there in Tokyo,” he explained. “I am hoping that my event will be there in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.”
Prior to Devendra, only two Indians have won a gold in the Paralympics. The first to win a gold was Murlikant Petkar who bagged the yellow metal in men’s 50m freestyle swimming in the 1972 Heidelberg Games.
In Rio, Mariyappan Thangavelu won a gold in men’s high jump T42 with Devendra bagging the second yellow metal in the same Games earlier this month.
Joginder Singh Bedi, however, remains the Indian with most medals in Paralympics, though without a gold. In the 1984 Paralympic Games at New York, he won a silver in men’s shot put L6, and a bronze each in men’s discus and javelin.
Devendra is very hopeful that he will be nominated for next year’s Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. “No Indian has won two gold medals in the Paralympics. I am encouraged by the fact that Paralympian achievements will be considered at par with able-
bodied athletes in terms of conferring sports awards and even Padma awards. I feel that I am a strong contender for the Khel Ratna award next year,” asserted the athlete.
Press Trust of India
