Paralympian Sumit Antil seeks to clear 75 metres in 2024, ‘want to push the limit every time’

Sumit Antil wants to make 2024 special for himself and the country. A serial record breaker in javelin throw (F64 category), the 25-year-old will be defending his Paralympics and world championship titles this year. Antil, who lost his left leg in a bike accident when he was 17, received the Khel Ratna Award, India’s highest sporting honour, in 2021.

Speaking during the Fit India Champions Podcast, Antil, who holds the world record of 73.29 metres set in the 2023 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, wants to break the 75-metre mark in two major events scheduled this year – the world para athletics champions in Kobe, Japan in May and the Paralympics in Paris in August.

“I have always loved to push the limits. I have always worked very hard for this. Winning a second gold medal in the Paralympics for India is a goal but if I can break the 75 meters mark, it will be a dream,” said Sumit Antil to Fit India Champions podcast host Shrimati Ekta Vishnoi. 

The ‘Fit India Champions’ podcast series is aimed at spreading the message on wellness through conversations with athletes and health influencers. The 10-episode series is in partnership with GOQii, a major stakeholder in the fitness sector that proactively manages health through its digital and multimedia technology.

From his love for ‘rasmalai’ (a dessert made of milk and cottage cheese) to how experts discovered that he was using the wrong ‘leg’ during the 2019 world para athletics meet in Dubai, Antil, once motivated by Oscar Pistorius, spoke on a range of subjects in the Fit India Champions podcast. Antil said how he overcame the challenge of losing a leg in a bike accident and how his love for javelin grew because “the spear flew far and wide.”

Antil, who wanted to become a wrestler as a youngster growing up in Sonepat in Haryana, revealed his career changed completely after he tested new prosthetics for one full year to prepare himself for global events. 

“For so long I was wearing the wrong limb. It was so frustrating. From February 2020 to February 2021, I tested my new limb and once I got used to it, there was never looking back. 

“In 2010 Commonwealth Games, Kashinath Naik won the bronze medal by throwing the javelin beyond 74 metres. There is a fire inside me to break that mark. It is still unthinkable for a para athlete to do what an able bodied man has done,” said Antil. 

Kashinath Naik, an Armyman, threw 74.29 metres to win India’s first ever javelin medal in Commonwealth Games. Naik has even been part of Olympic javelin champion Neeraj Chopra’s coaching team.

Antil said his entire training is managed by coach Arun Kumar. “The success of an athlete depends on his coach and the surrounding in which he is training. I love to train in India. I think there is no need to go overseas because I am very happy with the facilities available at SAI, Sonepat. Plus, you get all weather types in India and more importantly, I am near to my family and the group of friends who constantly keep me motivated,” said Antil.

Antil is clearly driven by targets. Having won gold medals in two of the highest competitions in the world, Antil wants to keep bettering his own records. Sumit Antil revealed how his team was “unhappy” because he could not break the 71.03-metre record despite winning the gold at the Paris world championship in 2023. “They were only happy when I created a new world record (73.29 m) at Hangzhou later in the year!” he added.