Atmaram Bhati
It is said that when you create a passion to do something different in your mind, then no matter how adverse the circumstances, no one can stop you from moving towards new heights. An example of this is in front of us, Para shooter Avani Lekhara, who won gold and bronze medals for the country in Tokyo Paralympics.
According to her name which means earth, at the end of June 2022, she made her mark with the best shooting at the world level in the R2 Women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 and R8-50m Rifle 3 Positions event. In a sports journey of just seven years, he created a new history by making not only himself but the entire country proud by reaching the top position in the world rankings.
Born on 8 November 2001 in Jaipur and running in the 21st spring of her life, Avni broke the world record of 250.6 in R2-10m Air Rifle Women’s SH1 in the Para Shooting World Cup competition held in France in the first week of June. Along with the gold medal in his bag. That’s when it was confirmed that the top post was waiting for Avni. And when the latest rankings were released at the end of the month, this achievement became Avni’s name and along with the Prime Minister, who encouraged every player who achieved the achievement, the personalities of every field of the whole country congratulated Avni Lekhara.
Not only Avni, who is always the topper in studies, her parents also never thought that her darling would come on a wheel chair in an accident and defeating this big physical tragedy of life with her courage, with her exact target, the name of the country. Will record a historic achievement and will prove to be a great inspiration for youth and women.
At the age of 11, Avni went into a lot of depression after coming on the wheel chair after breaking her spinal cord in an accident while traveling from Jaipur to Dholpur with her father. Due to inability to move, she kept herself locked in the room. But father Praveen and mother Shweta did not see this sorrow of their beloved and father decided to connect Avni with sports to get out of this crisis.
Avni decided to join sports as per her father’s wish to defeat this tremendous tragedy of life. And after reading the biography of Abhinav Bindra, who got the country the first individual gold medal in the Olympics, he decided to join shooting.
Taking Abhinav Bindra as his role model, he started practicing shooting for the first time in 2015 at Jagatpura Sports Complex. The father set up a target and gym in the house itself so that his beloved could practice continuously without any trouble with full enthusiasm. After that Avni did not look back. First state, then national and then the silver medal in the Para Shooting World Cup in Dubai caught the attention of all sports lovers. After that, riding on the chariot of continuous victory with her accurate marks at the international level, started medaling in the name of the country. After winning gold and bronze in Tokyo, she became a well-known name for the whole country. Today Avni has become the number one para shooter not only in the country but in the whole world.
As far as the Olympics is concerned, India has not achieved as much success in the Olympic history of 125 years as the Para players have got in the last two Paralympics. In Tokyo, where our players won only seven medals in the main Olympics, Para players won 19 medals for the first time in the country. In this the contribution of Avani Lekhara also cannot be ignored. Whereas in the 2016 Paralympics, he could win only four medals including one gold.
The way in which the achievements made by Avni in a sports career of just seven years by overcoming her physical disability, today she has become an inspiration for the daughters of the country. The Rajasthan government has made Avni the brand ambassador of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao project. Certainly, the gold wins in the Paralympics in Devendra Jhanjharia and Mariyappan Thangavelu in men have brought laurels to the country, then the same history has been created by Avni in women and for this, the amount of praise she deserves will be less. Salute to the spirit and courage of Avani Lekhara.