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Sharmila Dhankar wins India's first para-athletics CWG gold
The Times of India··28 Jul
Para shot putter Sharmila Dhankar, 40, won India's first ever Commonwealth Games para athletics gold on Monday, taking the women's F57 shot put title with a season best throw of 9.81 metres. Her win ended a 20 year wait for an Indian para athletics medal, the last coming in 2006 when Ranjith Kumar Jayaseelan won bronze in seated discus.
Prism
What It Means For You
- Her story offers a concrete example of how sport can provide a path to independence for survivors of domestic abuse.
- It highlights India's growing but still developing support systems for para athletes who begin competing later in life.
- Her daughters' athletic pursuits show how one parent's persistence can open opportunities across a whole family's future.
What's Happening
- Sharmila Dhankar won India's first ever Commonwealth Games para athletics gold in the women's F57 shot put with 9.81 metres.
- Her win ended a 20 year wait for an Indian para athletics medal at the Games, last achieved in 2006.
- She began competing in para sports only at age 34, after enduring polio, poverty and domestic violence earlier in life.
A House Sold Twice Over for a Second Birth
- The family sold their Rewari home in 2023 to fund her training after she narrowly missed a medal at the 2022 Birmingham Games.
- She recently won gold in shot put and bronze in discus at the Fazza International Para Athletics Championship in Dubai.
- Coaches Tek Chand and Devendra trained her after her second husband, Ajit Singh, first introduced her to para sports.
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