Avani Lekhara 19 year old from Jaipur has written history at the Tokyo Paralympics. She has bagged a gold medal in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 event on Monday. With this, she has become the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Paralympics.
Avni Lekhara
This is India’s 4th medal at the Tokyo Paralympics so far. According to reports Avani Lekhara created a Paralympics record and equaled the world record with a score of 249.6 with her paralympic debut.
Won Medal
After winning she shared her feelings and said, “I can’t describe this feeling. I’m feeling like I’m on top of the world. It’s unexplainable. I’m so happy I could be the one to contribute to it. Hopefully, there’s a lot of medals more to come,”.
Wishes for Her
Avani had suffered a devastating car accident in 2012 which left her paralyzed. However, even though the incident hurt her physically, it wasn’t enough able to break her courage. After reading Olympics gold-medalist Abhinav Bindra’s autobiography, she was inspired to pursue shooting. With a bit of push from her father, Avani took up the sport.
Wishes for Her
Since 2015, she has been winning medals by participating in multiple championships. In her first Rajasthan State Championship, she won bronze. This was followed by a silver medal at the IPC Para Shooting World Cup in 2017 and the 2019 Para Shooting World Cup in Osijek, Croatia. In March this year, she won gold at the 1st National Para-shooting championships.