MUMBAI: India’s Devendra Jhajharia broke his world record to clinch Paralympics javelin gold medal at Rio on Tuesday.
Jhajharia had won gold at the 2004 Athens Paralympics with a record effort of 62.15 metres, but his event in the F-46 category was not part of the programme in Beijing and London. However, with the event restored in Rio, he won again with a throw of 63.97m.
It was India’s second gold in Rio Paralympics.
Athletes in F-46 category have a single amputation, below or above the elbow. Jhajharia’s left arm is amputated below his elbow.
FINNISH TRAINING
To a great extent, the 35-year-old owed his second triumph to a short training stint earlier this year in Finland, a country famous for producing javelin champions. Indian Paralympians rarely go abroad for training or exposure trips.
For Jhajharia too, it was his maiden foreign stint, and the time spent at the renowned Olympic Training Center in the Finnish city in Kuortane worked wonders, and he cashed in.
In October 2015, he had a best throw of 59.06m at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha to win silver. In March, Jhajharia achieved a modest 55.35m at the IPC 2016 Athletics Asia-Oceania Championships, held in Dubai. While that effort was good enough to win gold, both the efforts pale in comparison with his effort in Rio.
“The world’s best javelin throwers come there (in Kuortane) to train. The equipment at the facility is second to none. There are machines there which tell you exactly what angle you are releasing your javelin and what angle you should be ideally releasing it. They also show you which part of your hand the power in your throw comes from and how you can maximise your throw. I will work on improving my technique there,” Jhajharia, who is one of the rare Paralympians to get funds from the government under the Target Olympic Podium (TOP) scheme, had told HT in April.
{{/usCountry}}“The world’s best javelin throwers come there (in Kuortane) to train. The equipment at the facility is second to none. There are machines there which tell you exactly what angle you are releasing your javelin and what angle you should be ideally releasing it. They also show you which part of your hand the power in your throw comes from and how you can maximise your throw. I will work on improving my technique there,” Jhajharia, who is one of the rare Paralympians to get funds from the government under the Target Olympic Podium (TOP) scheme, had told HT in April.
{{/usCountry}}FAMILY SUPPORT
Jhajharia also had a promise to keep with his six-year-old daughter, Jiya. She had topped her kindergarten class and wanted her father to win gold.
“She proudly phoned me to announce ‘I’ve topped, now it’s your turn’. (That is) something that kept echoing in my ear when I entered the field,” he told PTI.
The Jhajharia residence, in a village in Rajasthan’s Churu district, was a beehive of activity. The media landed up at their doorstep and was keen to know the sacrifices made by his wife Manju to enable her husband to realise his dreams.
Manju was a kabbadi player, who had represented Jaipur’s Bhawani Niketan College in the state championship in 2008, but gave up her career. She was also pursuing a PhD in geography from the Rajasthan University when they got married in 2007.
“When our daughter was born in 2009, we realised both of us won’t be able to pursue our sporting dreams at the same time. This gave him the freedom to concentrate on his sport instead of worrying about small issues at home,” Manju told HT.
She said Jhajharia wants Jiya to follow in their footsteps and take up sports, though shooting or archery.