Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nationality | Indian | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | 10 June 1981 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country | India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Para-Athletics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event | F46 Javelin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coached by | Sunil Tanwar | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Paralympic finals | 2004 2016 2020 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Devendra Jhajharia (born 10 June 1981) is an Indian Paralympic javelin thrower competing in F46 events. He is the first Indian Paralympics player to win two gold medals at the Paralympics. He won his first gold in the javelin throw at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, becoming the second gold medalist at the Paralympics for his country. [1] At the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, he won a second gold medal in the same event, bettering his previous record. [2] Devendra is currently being supported by the Olympic Gold Quest. [3] He becomes India's most decorated Paralympic player by winning his third medal, a silver at the 2020 Summer Paralympics at Tokyo.
Jhajharia was born in 1981 and hails from the Churu District in Rajasthan. At the age of eight, climbing a tree he touched a live electric cable. He received medical attention but the doctors were forced to amputate his left hand. [4] [5] In 1997 he was spotted by Dronacharya Awardee coach R. D. Singh while competing at a school sports day, and from that point was coached by Singh. He gave credit to his personal coach R. D. Singh for 2004 Paralympic Gold Medal, saying: "He gives me a lot of advice and helps me during training." [6] [7]
He has been coached by Sunil Tanwar since 2015. [8]
In 2002 Jhajharia won the gold medal in the 8th FESPIC Games in South Korea. In 2004 Jhajharia qualified for his first Summer Paralaympic Games representing India at Athens. At the games he set a new world record with a distance of 62.15m eclipsing the old one of 59.77m. The throw gave him the gold medal and he became only the second gold medalist at the Paralympics for his country (India's first gold medal came from Murlikant Petkar). [9]
Further athletic success came in 2013 at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France when he took the gold medal in the F46 javelin throw. He followed this with a silver medal at the 2014 Asian Para Games at Incheon in South Korea. At the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, despite throwing 59.06, Jhajharia could only finish in second place, claiming silver behind China's Guo Chunliang, who threw a championship record distance.
In 2016, he won a gold medal at the 2016 IPC Athletics Asia-Oceania Championship in Dubai. At the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, he won the gold medal in the men's javelin throw F46 event, bettering his own 2004 record with a world-record throw of 63.97 metres. [2]
On 30 August 2021, Jhajharia won silver medal in the men's javelin throw F46 event at Tokyo Paralympics 2020 [10] along with Sundar Singh Gurjar (bronze medal at the same event).
A former Indian Railways employee, Jhajharia is currently employed with the Rajasthan Forest Department. His wife, Manju, is a former nationally ranked kabaddi player; the couple has two children, Jiya and Kavyan. [11] [12]
Devendra Jhajharia was brought up by Jevani Devi and Ram Singh Jhajharia [13]
On 2 March 2024, he was announced as the BJP candidate for the 2024 Indian general election from the Churu constituency in Rajasthan.
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Ripudaman Singh, known as R.D. Singh, is an Indian athletics coach from Hanumangarh, Rajasthan. He is a recipient of Dronacharya Award, by the government of India. He is India's first Dronacharya awardee coach in the category of sports for specially abled.
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Hollie Beth Arnold, is a British parasport athlete competing in category F46 javelin. Although born in Grimsby, she now lives and trains in Loughborough. She represents Wales in the Commonwealth Games. Arnold was the youngest ever field athlete to ever compete in the Paralympics/Olympics, at the age of 14 at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing throwing a personal best. She also threw a personal best in 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. She took the gold medal in the F46 javelin in the 2016 Rio Paralympics, also throwing a new world record at the same time. In 2021, at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, she took the bronze medal in the same event. In 2018, she became the first ever Javelin thrower in history to hold all four major titles in the same Paralympic/Olympic 4-year cycle: Rio Paralympics and world record 2016, London World Championships and world record 2017, Berlin European Championships and course record 2018 and Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and world record 2018. She also holds four consecutive world titles: 2013 Lyon, 2015 Doha, 2017 London, and 2019 Dubai.
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Subedar Neeraj Chopra is an Indian track and field athlete, who is the reigning Olympic champion and World champion in Men's javelin throw. He is the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in javelin and the first Asian to win gold in his event at the World Championship. A Junior Commissioned Officer Subedar (JCO) in the Indian Army, Chopra is the first track and field athlete to win a gold medal for India at the Olympics. He is also the first track and field athlete from India to win at the World Under-20 Championships, where in 2016 he achieved a world U20 record throw of 86.48 m, becoming the first Indian athlete to set a world record.
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Herath Mudiyansalage Dinesh Priyantha, also simply known as Dinesh Priyantha, is a Sri Lankan Paralympic track and field athlete who competes in javelin T46 events. He also served as an important member for the Sri Lanka Army during the Sri Lankan Civil War. He was disabled after being shot at his left arm during the final stages of the war. He is the defending Paralympic champion in men's javelin throw F46 category. On 30 August 2021, he became the first ever Sri Lankan to win a gold medal at the Paralympics when he won the men's javelin throw F46 category. He is the current Paralympic and World record holder in men's javelin throw for F46 category.
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