Sumit Antil breaks Paralympic record twice to win gold in Javelin Throw

Reigning Paralympic champion and world champion Sumit Antil broke the Paralympic record twice to win the gold medal in the F64 Javelin Throw event at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, France on Monday.

Sumit, who won the gold medal at the Tokyo Paralympics, broke his Paralympic record of 68.55m from the events three years back.

He threw a best throw of 70.59m to win his consecutive gold medal. However, he fell short of the existing world record of 73.29m which he created last year at the Asian Para Games.

Sumit started brilliantly with a brilliant throw of 69.11m and broke the Paralympic record for the first time.

In the second throw, he crossed the 70m mark with a throw of 70.59m and broke the Paralympic record for the second time. He repeated his record-breaking spree from Tokyo, where he broke world records thrice to clinch the gold medal.

He recorded throws of 66.66m, 69.04, and 66.57m in his third, fifth, and sixth attempts and a no mark in his fourth throw.

With this medal, Sumit became the first Indian to win a consecutive gold medal in Para Athletics at the Paralympics. He became the second-ever Indian to win two gold medals in para-athletics with current Paralympic Committee of India president Devendra Jhajharia being the other one.

The other two Indians in the event finished out of the podium with Sandeep finishing at fourth place for the third time at the Paralympics. He finished fourth in the same category at the Tokyo Paralympics and fourth in the F44 event at the Rio Paralympics.

Despite recording the season's best throw of 62.80m, Sandeep finished fourth behind Michal Burian of Australia.

Sanjay Sargar recorded the best throw of 58.03m and finished seventh overall.

After Sumit's medal, India is placed 14th in the medal tally with a total of 14 medals including three gold, five silver, and six bronze medals.