Sundar Singh Gurjar overcame a shoulder injury to defend his F46 javelin crown at the World Para athletics championships while securing a Tokyo Paralympic Games quota, along with the bronze winner Ajeet Singh and Rinku, here on Monday.
Sundar came up with his season’s best effort of 61.22m to claim the top spot, Ajeet threw 59.46m to clinch the bronze while Rinku finished fourth.
Under International Paralympic Committee rules, the top four athletes in each of the individual medal events on the Tokyo 2020 paralympic programme (excluding Marathon) will each get one qualification slot for his/her respective country.
ADVERTISEMENT
The 23-year-old Sundar not only defended his London Worlds 2017 title here but also became the only second Indian to have clinched two World Championships medals after Devendra Jhajharia’s gold and silver in 2013 Lyon and 2015 Doha Championships.
The F46 category athletes have a single below or above the elbow amputation.
“Indian javelin throwers have always brought laurels to India.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Today once again our players showed that they will be the ones to beat at Tokyo 2020. This also shows that we are in the right track,” said Gursharan Singh, Paralympic Committee of India.
India now has two gold, one silver and a bronze from this championships.