Avani Lekhara Wins Bronze Medal In Rifle Event At Tokyo Paralympics

Avani Lekhara Wins Bronze: Para-shooter Avani Lekhara has claimed her second medal at the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics 2020. She has clinched a bronze medal in R8 Women's 50m Rifle 3P SH1 Event at Tokyo Paramlympics. She is now the only Indian woman to have clinched two medals at a single edition of Olympics. Lekhara scored 445.9 in the final to win the medal. She had earlier bagged a gold medal in R-2 women's 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 and equalled Iryna Shchetnik’s world record that was set in 2018. With that, she scripted history by becoming the first Indian ever to win a gold medal in shooting at the Paralympics.

Here's what you should know about the shooting prodigy

Avani Lekhara is a Jaipur based shooter. She had sustained spinal cord injuries in a car accident in 2012. She has been wheel-chair bound since then.

The turning point in her life came when she read Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra’s autobiography, A Shot At History. Inspired by it, she took up shooting and won a bronze medal in her very first Rajasthan state championship. She made her international debut in 2017.

She qualified for the Paralympics Games at Tokyo this year. At present, she holds the World Number 5 position in Women’s 10m Air Rifle standing SH1, as per the World Shooting Para Sports Rankings released earlier this year.

In Tokyo, Lekhara became the fourth Indian athlete to win a gold medal at the Paralympics after swimmer Murlikant Petkar in 1972, javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia in 2004 and 2016 and high jumper Thangavelu Mariyappan in 2016. For her gold victory, she is going to receive a cash reward of three crore rupees from the Rajasthan government. Read more about this here.

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