Para-athlete Navdeep made history in the Paralympic Games when his silver was upgraded to a gold medal in the Men’s Javelin throw F41 category with a personal best distance of 47.32 metres here on Saturday, bagging India’s seventh gold medal in the French Capital. Navdeep had initially finished second in the competition behind Iranian Beit Sayah Sadegh, who had achieved a Paralympic Games record of 47.65 metres.
However, the Indian javelin thrower’s medal was upgraded after the Iranian athlete was disqualified for violation of rule 8.1 of the World Para Athletics Rules and Regulations (Code of Conduct and Ethics).
According to the rule, “World Para Athletics (WPA) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, ethics, and conduct in the sport of Para athletics. All participants in the sport, including athletes, coaches, officials, and administrators, have a responsibility to uphold these standards and ensure that the sport is conducted in a fair, honest, and transparent manner.”
Havdeep thus won the gold medal in the Men’s Javelin F41 category with a personal best throw. This is India’s first-ever gold medal in the Men’s Javelin F41 category in Paralympic Games. This took India’s overall medal tally to 29 (7 gold, 9 silver, 13 bronze).
On Saturday, Navdeep started with a foul before he hurled the spear to 46.39 metres on the second throw before hurling it to 47.32 in the third. A foul later, Navdeep could manage only 46.06 metres before ending his campaign with another foul.
China’s Sun Pengxiang got the silver medal in 44.72m while Iraq’s Wildan Nukhailawi was upgraded to bronze in 40.46m.
A talented para-athlete from Panipat, Haryana, Navdeep has overcome the challenges of his short stature to excel in the world of sports. The 24-year-old completed his education at Unique Public School and Delhi University, where he studied B.A. Hindi (Hons.).
Inspired by his father who was a national-level wrestler, Navdeep started his sports journey in athletics before only focusing on javelin throw. He received professional coaching in 2017 and made his international debut at the Asian Youth Para Games that year, where he won the gold medal in the javelin throw. he had finished fourth in the Tokyo Paralympic Games and had a similar fate in the Asian Para Games in Hangzhou.
Navdeep has won five gold medals at the national level. In 2021, he participated in the Fazza International Championship in Dubai and secured the gold medal.