PM Modi congratulates Avani Lekhara for 'historic' gold medal win at Tokyo Paralympics

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Avani Lekhara for her historic gold medal-winning performance at the Tokyo Paralympics Women's 10m Air Rifle SH1 event on Monday. Not only did Lekhara win India's first gold medal in the ongoing Games, but she also became the first woman from India to win a Paralympics gold.

'Phenomenal performance': PM Modi

Taking to the micro-blogging site, Twitter, PM Modi lauded Avani Lekhara's "phenomenal performance" and congratulated the Indian shooter on winning a hard-earned and well-deserved Gold. PM Modi added that it was possible due to Avani's 'industrious' nature and 'passion' towards shooting and wished the champion shooter the best for her future endeavours.

2008 Beijing Olympics gold medalist Abhinav Bindra also came forward and gave special mention to the 'brilliant display' shown by Lekhara.

Sports Minister Anurag Thakur lauded Avani Lekhara on this historic achievement as she became the only Indian woman to win a gold medal in the Paralympics.

Avani Lekhara's gold-winning win

Competing in the Women's 10m Air Rifle SH1 final event on Monday, Avani Lekhara won the gold medal with a score of 249.6 equalling the world record and Paralympic record. In fact, the champion shooter had qualified for the final, finishing 7th in the qualification round, with a total score of 621.7. Avani after a slow start made up ground and went on to advance to the finals of the showpiece event. She registered good scores of 104.9, 104.8 in her third and fourth attempts to be in contention for the medal before scoring 104.1 in the final round of qualification.

In the finals, Lekhara started out with a score of 52.0, 51.3, and 21.6 in the first three shots. She continued to keep hold of the lead by shooting 20.8, 21.2, and 20.9 in the next three shots. In the last three shots, Lekhara shot 21.2, 20.1, and 20.5 to strike gold for India in the ongoing Paralympics Games.