Golden girl Avni Lakhera will be the leading flag bearer of the Indian contingent in the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Paralympics 2021. The 12 days long paralympics event started on August 24, has come to an end on September 5, 2021 with its closing ceremony from 4:30 p.m. IST to 7 p.m. IST. During the entire paralympics event Indian players performed tremendously. India clinched a total 19 medals so far and managed to get 24th position among 170 NPCs with 5 gold, 8 silver and 6 bronze medals.
OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
According to an official from the paralympics committee of India, Avni will be the flag bearer and there will be 11 participants from the Indian contingent during the closing ceremony.
A NEW WORLD RECORD BY AVNI
Avni who is a 19 years old, world ranked 5 para rifle shooter has created history after becoming the 1st Indian girl to win a gold medal in the R-2 women’s 10 metre air rifle standing SH1 event on Monday and a bronze medal in 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 event on Friday. She has become the first girl who has won two consecutive medals in the same event. She also has created the world record of 249.6 points by her performance in Tokyo paralympics. Ms. Avni has been appointed as the Assistant Conservator of Forest in Rajasthan state’s forest department.
INSPIRED BY Abhinav Bindra
Avni who hails from Jaipur, Rajasthan considers Abhinav Bindra as her inspiration. In 2012 she got a serious injury in her spinal cord due to a major car accident. After that her lower body got paralyzed. After a few years of this heartbreaking incident, her father encouraged her to take part in Para sports competitions of either archery or shooting. She felt more comfortable with holding a rifle. After reading the autobiography of Olympic gold medalist shooter Abhinav Bindra, “A shot at history”, her inclination towards shooting got really strong. She decided to join an academy for proper training.
OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS
Just after one year of training she managed to get a bronze medal at the national championships; it helped her to boost her confidence. She also has participated in major para shooting events such as the World Cup and World Championship in 2018. At the Para shooting world championship she got 9th position with 1130 scores and in the same year she successfully won the Silver medal at the World Cup with a score of 244. She has been supported by Gosports foundation through the Para Championship program. In the Paralympics competition she received the guidance of Suma Siddharth Shirur as her coach.
