India's Avani Lekhara on Monday created history by becoming the first Indian woman to win a gold at the Paralympics after winning the women's 10m air rifle standings SH1 event at the Tokyo Paralympics on Monday. Lekhara is the fourth Indian to win a gold at the Paralympics after Murlikant Petkar (swimming), Devendra Jhajharia (javelin throw) and Mariyappan Thangavelu (javelin throw).
Lekhara is the first Indian to win a medal in shooting at the Paralympics. She is only the third Indian woman to win a medal at the Paralympics after Deepa Malik (shotput, 2016) and Bhavinaben Patel (table tennis), who both won silver medals.
At 19, she is also the youngest Indian to win a medal at the Paralympics. The last youngest was Mariyappan Thangavelu, who was 21 when he won a gold medal at the Rio Paralympics.
Lekhara was in fine form in the final as she equaled the world record and set a new Paralympic record with an impressive total of 249.6. She had earlier finished seventh in the qualification round with a total of 621.7 points.
China's Zhang Qiping won the silver medal with a total score of 248.9, while Ukraine's Irina Shchetnik won the bronze with a score of 227.5. Zhang and Shchetnik finished first and second in the first qualification round with similar scores of 626, respectively, setting a new qualifying Paralympic record in the process.
Zhang was the defending champion, while Shchetnik was the World No. 1 and current world champion.
"I can't describe the feeling, I feel like I'm on top of the world. It's unexplainable," Lekhra said.
"I am so happy that I can be the one to contribute. Hopefully there are a lot more medals to come. All I was saying is, I have to take one shot at a time. Nothing more All that matters, just take one shot at a time and finish it.
"I think I have to follow the procedure. Also, I try not to think about the score or the medal table," Lekhara said after the final.
This is India's first gold and fourth medal overall at these Games. Both Bhavinaben Patel and Nishad Kumar had earlier on Sunday won a silver each in the women's singles table tennis category 4 and men's T47 high jump events, while Vinod Kumar won a bronze medal in the men's F52 discus throw event.
Current world number 5 in the women's 10m air rifle standings SH1 event, 19-year-old Lekhara is making her first Paralympic appearance in Tokyo.
A major car accident in 2012 injured her spinal cord, leaving her wheelchair-dependent.
Three years later, following his father's encouragement, he decided to try his hand at professional shooting and archery. As luck would have it, she was inspired to take the former seriously after reading A Shot at History, the autobiography of Abhinav Bindra, India's first individual Olympic gold medalist.
Lekhara, now backed by OGQ, recently won a silver medal at the 2021 Para Shooting World Cup. She will have a chance to win more medals in these Games as she will also compete in three more events: Women's 50m Rifle Three Position SH1, Mixed 10m Air Rifle SH1 and Mixed 10m Rifle Prone SH1.
Among other Indian shooters in action on Monday, Swarup Mahavir Unhalkar missed out on a medal, finishing fourth in the men's 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 event with a score of 203.9 in the final. Deepak Saini failed to qualify for the final after finishing 20th in the qualification round.
Unhalkar had earlier finished seventh in the qualification round with a score of 615.2. Saini will also participate in the men's 50m Rifle Three Position SH1 and Mixed 50m Rifle Prone SH1 events later this week.