When the two-time Paralympic champion Sumit Antil won the gold with a new championship record in the men’s F64 javelin throw in the World Para Athletics Championships, his mother Nirmala Devi’s mind rewound to the 53 days he spent in hospital after a bike accident in 2015. On the day Sumit won the medal with his fifth throw of 71.37, his words from the hospital replayed in her mind.
His leg had been amputated and he had just been administered three bottles of blood when he told her, “Tera beta do taango waalon se bhi accha kar ke dikayega (your son will do better than those with both legs),” she recalled in a conversation with The Indian Express. “Aaj pehli baar Sumit ko stadium main gold medal, I remembered those words. His father Ram Kumar too would be cheering from the heavens,” says an emotional Nirmala Devi.
She recalled the tough times. When he underwent surgery at Research and Referral hospital to save his leg, he suffered infection and it was due to efforts of the doctors that the upper leg was saved. I would be spending my nights at the guest-hall, when he was in ICU. I had suffered a heart attack in 2003. Despite being in the ICU, Sumit would tell his friends to tell me that he will fight back.”
And fight he did. Antil’s record throw came in front of his family, including his son Meet and his sisters Renu, Sushila and Kiran. “The only time we athletes don’t think about training or competitions is when we are with family. When I won my first international medal in 2019, I kept it in my mother’s feet and the same will be the case of this world championship gold. She has been my strength and the reason, what kept me motivated during my recovery and it’s emotional today for me,” Antil told The Indian Express.
The two-time Paralympic champion had won the gold in last year’s Paris Paralympics with a throw of 70.59m. On Tuesday he started with a throw of 65.59m before he broke his own championship record of 70.83m made in 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris. He also created the new world record of 73.29m in Asian Para Games in 2023.
This Delhi tournament was the first time that Antil was competing without the inclusion of F44 throwers, which sees athletes without leg prosthesis. The second best throw in the F64 and F63 combined category was the 48.38m by Tomas Felipe of Columbia.
Antil’s record throw came in front of his family, including his son Meet and his sisters Renu, Sushila and Kiran. (ANI Photo)
“I am of the firm belief that it’s only myself who can push me and I want to push my limits. Yes, when the second best in the category is well below your mark, sometimes it can act as me being complacent but then again, I remind myself of competing against myself. That’s why I went to Geneva to compete as there were able bodied throwers who have thrown around 80m. And it helped me train my mind that I too can catch them. Neeraj bhai (Neeraj Chopra) was also watching us today and that also makes this record special ,” shared Antil.
Story continues below this ad
For the last two days before the event, Antil had trained with a sore shoulder. He had suffered a back injury in 2018 that had flashed again during the 2023 Asian Games and the World championships in the same year. The Haryana thrower had been working on adding to his core strength to balance the less stress on his back.
“When I woke up two days ago, I felt the soreness in my right shoulder, Maybe it was due to some wrong sleeping position. I could sense the soreness in the initial throws today but I am glad that I could make the record-throw towards the end,” said Antil.
This year, the 27-year-old has crossed the 70m mark twice and he has already broken the world record nine times in his career, and is targeting it again. For the last six months, he has been training under strength and conditioning coach Manoj. Their aim is next year’s Para Asian Games and then 2027 World Championships and LA Paralympics. “The season has ended. So I will sit with my team to plan competing in the able bodied competitions too next year towards the target of pushing myself as well to get that elusive motivation too,” says Antil.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd