Indian para-athlete Anandan Gunasekaran won three gold medals at the recent World Military Games in Wuhan, China, running with a prosthetic leg.
The Indian Army soldier, who lost his left leg in a mine blast near Jammu and Kashmir in 2008, claimed the top honours in the men’s disabled 100m and 400m IT1 event as well as the men’s disabled 200m IT1 event.
The 32-year-old national champion’s next aim is the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. He has to take part in a selection trial to qualify for the games.
“My final trial for selection in 200m for the Tokyo Paralympics will be held in May next year. That is the only obstacle left before me now for getting selected for the Tokyo Games,” he told IANS.
Gunasekaran clocked 12.00 seconds to win the 100m event, which is India’s first medal at the Military Games. The 32-year-old clinched his next gold by clocking 53.35 seconds in the disabled men’s 400m IT1 event. The third medal came in the men’s disabled 200m IT1 event with a timing of 24.31s.
The IT1 event is competed among ambulant athletes who have single or double below-the-knee amputation or substantial foot to knee damage. The Indian lost his leg in June 2008 while serving near the Line of Control.
“I was descending a slope along with three other soldiers after completing a check on a wire fence along the LoC. The three colleagues were walking ahead of me. I was the last one in the group to descend the slope when my left foot fell on a hidden landmine. I was unlucky, as the area was not a minefield,” Gunasekaran recalled the incident in the interview with IANS.
A part of the Madras Sappers of the Indian Army, he started competitive running only after the mine blast. Gunasekaran is a 2018 National Para Athletics champion in 200m and 400m. He had also won a silver in 400m in the 2017 World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai.
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