At the age of 19 years, Avani Lekhara has become India’s most successful women para-athlete after claiming her second medal at the Tokyo Paralympics. She has won a bronze in women’s 50m rifle three positions SH1 classification. Earlier she has bagged a gold medal in the women’s 10m air rifle.
Lekhara completed with 445.9 points while China’s Zhang Cuiping won her third consecutive Paralympics gold medal at this event by scoring a personal best of 457.9 points. Germany’s Natasha Hilltop won the Silver medal by scoring 457.1 points. With this medal, India’s tally reaches to 12. The same day India got another medal when Praveen Kumar won silver in the men’s high jump T64.
Since 2017, Avani has won many World Cup medals including a Silver with a Junior World Record in R2 at the WSPS World Cup 2017, bronze at the WSPS World Cup Bangkok 2017, silver in the WSPS World Cup in Osijek, Croatia 2019 and silver in the WSPS World Cup Al-Ain 2021. She won the Tokyo Paralympics quota in February 2019 in the UAE.