The 19-year-old became the first woman from India to win a Paralympics gold medal. Avani finished with a Paralympic Record and in-process equaled the World Record with 249.6 points. Avani Lekhara started the final at a very good pace as she scored consistently above 10 points. Just two-shot of her went below 10 in the 1st competition stage which landed her in the second position. Earlier, the ace shooter finished seventh in the qualification round with a total score of 621.7.
Avani staged a good recovery after a slow start to advance to the finals of the showpiece event. She registered good scores of 104.9, 104.8 in her third and fourth attempt to be in the game before scoring 104.1 in the final round of qualification. The Indian shooter will now lock horns in the finals of the showpiece event. On Sunday, India’s para table tennis player Bhavina won silver as she lost the gold medal match to China’s Zhou Ying 3-0 in the women’s singles – Class 4. With the silver medal, Bhavana became the first table tennis player ever to win a medal at the Paralympics for India and the second female athlete after PCI chief Deepa Malik to achieve this feat.
India has done considerably well at the Paralympics as they have won 4 medals thus far equalling the tally of 2016. With many star players yet to come the tally will be surpassed soon is what the experts believe. India have done exceedingly well and Avni’s medal has just lifted the mojo. Indian shooting had a miserable time at the Olympics but Avni has redeemed all that.
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She hails from Jaipur, Rajasthan. She is the daughter of army men and started shooting from the age of 8. She didn’t let her disability come her way as she made a statement by winning the gold. India shines at Paralympics 2021and hopefully we will have few more medals up our sleeve as Tokyo has been the best hunting space for us thus far. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hailed all the winners and not just them the wishes have come in for all the sporting personalities and others as well.
Neeraj Chopra is still trying to sink in his win and amidst that such performances has made the country proud. India’s Paralympic tale is no different and Avni Lekhara has written her name in the history books as of now. She is just 19 and can be the candidate who wins back to back medals at the Olympics.
