Sumit Antil defends Paralympic title javelin: ‘He brings us gold ornaments but his gold medals are biggest gifts’, says mother

As she watched her son 26-year-old Sumit Antil win the gold medal in the men’s F64 javelin throw final in the Paris Olympics at the family’s new home in the village Khewra near Sonepat in Haryana, Nirmala Devi is reminded of a wall from the older home. The wall of fame had Antil’s nine world record marks from 2019 onwards. That wall now is going to get a new entry: 70.59m.

“I don’t understand those numbers but I know that he has won the gold medal. Jab bhi ghar ata hai toh kehta hai ki uska competition khud se hi hai (Whenever he comes home, he tells us that his competition is only with himself). To see the Indian flag high had been his dream since childhood and that’s what he has done again in Paris,” the mother shares with The Indian Express.

Antil’s best throw on Monday was 3.56m better than what silver medallist Dulan Kodithuwakku of Sri Lanka managed. In fact, the Indian had two more throws that were better than anything that the rest of the field managed.

Antil, who first set the world record in 2019 with a 61.32m throw in the F 64 category, where athletes with moderately affected movement in one or both the legs or the absence of limbs compete, is the current world record holder with a mark of 73.29m set in Asian Para games last year. In between, Antil has broken the world record seven times including three world records during his title triumph in Tokyo Paralympics.

No one in World Para Athletics has maintained such a long record of having bettered their own world record multiple times like Antil. Devi credits this hunger to her late husband Ram Kumar, an Indian Air Force mechanic, who died of cancer in 2004.

Sumit Antil’s mother Nirmala Devi says, “To see the Indian flag high had been his dream since childhood and that’s what he has done again in Paris.” (Sumit Antil on Instagram)

“My husband was a junior warrant officer with the Indian Air Force and worked as the mechanic at Air Force bases like Jamnagar, Kalaikunda, Srinagar and Chennai Air Force Stations. During his tenure, he would be the one who could fix any kind of malfunction in the Air Force vehicles and had several commendation certificates. Sumit ka world record todne ka junoon bhi uske pita ke junoon se aya hai (Sumit’s ability to improve his world mark has come from his father’s passion),” says Devi.

Rising from adversity

Monday marked 9 years, 3 months and 4 days since the then 16-year-old’s bike was hit by a tractor on the Sonepat-Dewra road while returning home from tuitions. The left leg had to be amputated. Antil had earlier shared about his 53-day ordeal at the hospital.

“I only thought about becoming a wrestler along with my studies and dreamt about getting a job to support my family post my father’s demise. I had made the call to the ambulance when the accident happened. The only thought when my left leg was amputated was about restarting my life. Yes, there were moments when I felt low but I had this belief in myself that I would not let my life go to waste due to this,” Antil had said.

A trip to Pune for getting a prosthetic leg from the family’s savings was followed by a meeting with para athlete Raj Kumar. Initially, he trained under Para Asian Games medallist Virender Dhankar before working with the Dronacharya awardee coach Naval Singh from 2018. Sumit, who used to throw 45m then, also arranged three lakhs to go to Finland to train with the 1988 Olympics gold medallist Tapio Korjus.

.“Like Neeraj Chopra, Sumit had the natural ability to jerk. But in Sumit’s case, the skin on his knee would be bruised after using the prosthetic leg. Since he used to wrestle, he had good upper body strength and we used to make him throw the shot put to develop his lower body. After his classification was done with a throw of 52.72m in 2018, he made a throw of 59.45m in the Para Asian games trials,” recalls Naval Singh.

“I would take multiple attempts to set up my run-up as I used the left leg to block the body and it all depended on the condition of my bruised knee,” he had told this newspaper in the past. “Vipin Kasana bhai would tell me not to pull my hand back and to put the focus on hips coming ahead first. I also saw the Finnish throwers using different angles.” All-round development in his technique led to multiple world records.

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His mother Devi also talks about his wife. “Sheetal keeps track of all his records and she has brought luck to his life! He tells her that he could cross the 70m mark after his marriage! While he always brings us gold ornaments from his trips abroad, the biggest gift for all of us are his gold medals,” says the mother.

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