Naval Singh, the coach of javelin thrower Sumit Antil, has said the athlete promised him he'll return with a gold medal from the Tokyo Paralympics.
India's Sumit Antil very comprehensively won gold in the men's javelin throw (Sport Class F64) at National Stadium in Tokyo. Sumit dominated the show from the word go as he improved the World Record three times in the final. He threw a monstrous throw of 68.55m in his fifth attempt to climb on the top of the podium.
"The hard work was done by Sumit, he has always been hardworking. He has always been sincere, if I ever told him to train for five hours, he would train for six. He has his mother, he is very attached to his mother. Sumit's hardwork has taken him this far, a coach's role is to do the hard yards at the ground, but the eventual job has to be done by the athlete. Neeraj Chopra won a medal, so people started realising javelin throw," said Singh in a video shared by Paralympic Committee of India (PCI).
"Now Sumit Antil has won a medal. My job was to mentally boost Sumit, today I am really happy to see what we expected, Sumit did far better than that. Sumit promised that he will return with gold and for a coach, nothing can be of bigger happiness," he added.
After winning a gold medal at the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics, javelin thrower Sumit Antil on Monday said that he is satisfied with his performance but wanted to touch the 70m mark.
"I wanted to touch the 70m mark, but I am very happy with my performance. In one competition, I was able to break the World Record thrice. And I was also able to win the gold medal, I cannot express how I am feeling right now, I am just numb, to be honest," Antil told ANI.
Sumit who went first in the field gave an almost uphill task to all contenders as he started the final by breaking his own World Record with a throw of 66.95m. The previous World Record was 62.88m, which Sumit improved by almost 4 meters in his very first attempt.
( With inputs from ANI )
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