Dubai: Sundar Singh Gurjar overcame a shoulder injury to defend his World Para Athletics Championships title in the men’s F46 javelin throw event while also securing Tokyo Paralympic Games quota, along with bronze winner Ajeet Singh and Rinku, here.
Gurjar came up with his season’s best effort of 61.22m to claim the top spot. Ajeet sent the spear to a distance of 59.46m to clinch the bronze while Rinku finished fourth.
“I am very happy. It was a relief. I came into this Championship with no training for the last one month. I got injured while training and so had to tape my shoulder today. When I was warming up, I felt the pain. But I was lucky in the finals, I didn’t feel it,” Gurjar said in a statement released by the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI).
“In my last attempt, I knew that I got it there, but never realised that it will be my season’s best. It was a good throw. This will motivate me to go for a medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics,” added Gujar.
Under International Paralympic Committee rules, the top four ranked athletes at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in each of the individual medal events on the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Programme (excluding Marathon) will each obtain one qualification slot for their respective country.
Staying in the second place till his fifth attempt, Gurjar hurled the javelin to a distance of 61.22 metres in his sixth attempt, enough to jump to the top of the table ahead of Sri Lanka’s Dinesh P Herath Mudiyanselage who was leading till then with his first attempt throw of 60.59m.
The F46 category athletes have a single below or above the elbow amputation.
India now have two gold, one silver and a bronze from this Championships.
PTI
