Express News Service
CHENNAI: During the 1971 Indo-Pak war, Dharampal Malik, a BSF soldier, stepped on a landmine severely injuring his right leg, which eventually had to be amputated later on. The accident on duty meant his son Vinod got a job with the force in 2002. Six months later, the tragedy struck again as Vinod fell off a cliff in Leh during training, injuring both his legs and rendering him bed-ridden for close to a decade.
Vinod lost both his parents during these painful years. His condition improved in 2012 and he started a small grocery shop near the Rajiv Gandhi Sports Complex in Rohtak. It was there he first saw athletes thronging to the stadium for their training. But it was not before Deepa Malik’s historic silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, he made up his mind to pursue sports professionally.
And in just five years, the 41-year-old Haryana athlete pocketed bronze by finishing third in the men’s F52 discus throw event of the Tokyo Paralympics on Sunday.
Despite finishing third with an Asian record behind Piotr Kosewicz (20.02m) of Poland and Velimir Sandor (19.98m) of Croatia, his result was put on hold following an objection filed by his competitors challenging his classification in the F52 event. “The matter has been sent to classification panel and it is likely to announce a decision tomorrow (Monday),” Satyanarayana, India’s para athletic coach, told this daily from Tokyo.
F52 is for athletes with impaired muscle power, restricted range of movement, limb deficiency or leg length difference, with athletes competing in a seated position with cervical cord injury, spinal cord injury, amputation, and functional disorder.
International Paralympic Committee (IPC) classifies an athlete’s disability for two years. The postponement of the Tokyo Paralympics by a year meant a few athletes including Vinod had to be classified again by the IPC. Only on August 22, it was confirmed that Vinod can compete in the T/F52 category.
“It’s not easy as I am in debt but the sacrifices will pay dividends if I win a medal,” the para-athlete had told this daily a few days ahead of the event.
He had finished fourth in the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai to book a Paralympic ticket. Vinod had returned Covid-19 positive twice and had to be hospitalised on both the occasion earlier this year while camping at the SAI centre in Bengaluru. However, he didn’t allow this to hamper his march towards the big event as Vinod threw 21m at the National Para Athletics Championships held in Bengaluru in March to book a place in the Indian squad.
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