Para Worlds: Record-breaking Sumit completes golden hat-trick
Sumit Antil won gold in men’s javelin F64, setting a new Championship Record at 71.37m. Yogesh Kathuniya secured silver in F56 discus throw.
New Delhi: With Sumit Antil, it was always a matter of when and not if. The two-time Paralympics gold medallist was a gold medal contender coming into the men’s javelin F64 final on Tuesday, and the 27-year-old ensured there was no threat to his World Championships crown that he has held since the 2023 edition in Paris.
The Indian, who also won a gold at Kobe Worlds last year (69.50m), completed a hat-trick of world titles with a best of 71.37m. The mark also reset his own Championship Record that he had set two years back (70.83m) at Paris Worlds. A measure of Antil’s dominance can be gauged from the fact that any of his four legal throws could have won him a gold medal.
Antil began with a throw of 65.59m that catapulted him to the top of the seven-man field straightaway, and he was never challenged thereafter. After a foul in the second attempt, Antil produced a series of 65.36m, 68.40m, and 71.37m before signing off with a no mark.
The second best on the night, Colombia’s Tomas Felipe Soto Mina, logged a personal best of 48.38m, about 23m short of Antil’s winning throw. Kazakhstan’s Rufat Khabibullin took the bronze with a PB of 47.14m.
The F64 classification includes athletes with a unilateral below-the-knee limb deficiency. The athletes compete in standing events and use a prosthesis.Antil lost his left leg to a road accident ten years back that ended his dreams to become a wrestler but with three World Championships and two Paralympics titles on the trot, he has firmly cast his legacy in Indian sports.
Pardeep Kumar, the other Indian in the competition, ended fifth (42.72m).
Earlier in the morning session, Yogesh Kathuniya won a silver medal in the men’s F56 discus throw event. The 28-year-old Kathuniya sent the disc to 42.49m in his second attempt for his best effort.
Kathuniya has now won a medal in all the four World Championships since 2019 but is yet to finish on top. He won a bronze on his Worlds debut in Dubai (2019) and followed it with silver medals in Paris 2023 and Kobe 2024. He also has two silver medals in the Paralympic Games (2021 and 2024) besides another silver at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Para Games.
World record holder Brazilian ace Claudiney Batista won the gold with a throw of 45.67m. Each of his six throws were better than that of Kathuniya’s best effort of the day. This was Batista’s fourth successive gold at Worlds. The F56 category is meant for athletes with limb deficiency, restricted range of movement, or impaired muscle power.
