Paralympics: Who is Hokato Hotozhe Sema, India’s bronze medal winner in shot put F47 event

Nagaland’s Hokato Hotozhe Sema added another medal to India’s Paralympics tally when he snapped up bronze in the the shot put F47 event late Friday night. The recent success took the country’s total medal tally to 27.

This was the 40-year-old’s debut at the Paralympics and came into the Men’s Shot Put – F57 Final with a Personal Best of 14.49m. He was sixth in the order of the athletes to throw. As this is a seated throw event, where athletes have to be harnessed to a throwing chair, all six attempts would be taken together in one go. The top two spots were all but decided early on. Yasin Khosravi and Thiago Paulino dos Santos throwing 15.96m (Paralympics Record) and 15.06m respectively. Khosravi and dos Santos had finished 1-2 at the World Championships in May earlier this year, so this was always on the cards.

The battle was likely going to be between Finland’s Teijo Koopikka and Sema. At the World Championships Koopikka had taken bronze with 14.74, while Sema had finished fourth with 13.97. But once the Finnish athlete was done with his six throws with a best of 14.18, Sema – going after him – knew he had the bronze in his sights. He moved into third position with 14.40 off his third throw, and then upgraded it to a new Personal Best of 14.65m to all but seal the third spot.

Sema is the second of the four children in a farmer’s family. When he was young, Sema dreamt of joining the elite Special Forces (SF) to serve the motherland and displayed the highest levels of physical fitness and mental robustness.

However, on October 14, 2002, his dreams were shattered when during a Counter Infiltration Operation, he became a casualty of mine blast and lost his left leg below the knee. He then took up Shot put at age of 32 while serving in the army.

In addition to the bronze in the Paralympics, Sema also won a bronze medal in the Asian Para Games 2022 and a silver medal in the Morocco Grand Prix in 2022. More recently, he finished 4th in the 2024 World Championship.

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