Avani Lekhara – The untold story of her historic success and the success of her unsung coach Suma Shirur

The 54-member Paralympic contingent of India has been sweeping medals on the Tokyo Paralympics 2020. Yesterday, India gained an unprecedented feat of 5 medals – 2 gold, 2 silver and a bronze – in a single day. The winners additionally included the nation’s first-ever Paralympic gold medal-winning girl athlete in shooter Avani Lekhara. The 19-year-old prodigy equalled the world file by capturing a rating of 249.6 within the R2 – Women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 occasion to clinch the gold. In the method, she additionally turned the first-ever Indian girl to strike Olympic gold in any of the Olympic occasions, whether or not or not it’s Summer, Winter or Youth Olympics.While Avani scripted historical past because the Indian nationwide anthem as soon as once more performed in Tokyo, her coach, Suma Shirur, a former Olympian and Arjuna awardee herself, quietly baked within the success of her scholar. In the method, Suma additionally fulfilled her lengthy misplaced dream of conquering an Olympic medal. What Pullela Gopichand is to Indian badminton, Suma Shirur will now be to Indian capturing as she is remembered as the lady who educated Avani Lekhara to golden glory. Avani Lekhara – The untold story of her historic success and the success of her unsung coach Suma ShirurHistorical past was created at Tokyo Paralympics, as Avani Lekhara gained a gold medal for India! – pic.twitter.com/Q0TBXvxGsD— Animesh Pandey 🇮🇳 (@LaffajPanditIND) August 30, 2021Shirur took to Twitter to share the success of Avani and tweeted, “GOLD IT IS! As a coach couldn’t have been any more proud of @AvaniLekhara and her performance today! India’s first woman to win a gold medal at Olympics or #Paralympics & with a world record. Surely more to come from her in the future too! #Praise4Para @ParalympicIndia @Tokyo2020”GOLD IT IS! As a coach couldn’t have been any extra pleased with @AvaniLekhara and her efficiency in the present day! India’s first girl to win a gold medal at Olympics or #Paralympics & with a world file. Surely extra to come back from her sooner or later too! #Praise4Para@ParalympicIndia @Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/LJMC1wambf— Suma Shirur OLY (@SumaShirur) August 30, 2021As an Olympian, Suma had nearly created historical past, when she reached the finals of Women’s 10 m. air rifle at Athens Olympics in 2004. However, lack of expertise and the dearth of backroom employees overwhelmed Suma and he or she completed final out of the 8 finalists. Suma tried to make a powerful comeback, however someway, she had misplaced that contact. However, she didn’t quit and centered on coaching the brand new college students.Read More: Deepa Malik – The girl behind India’s most profitable efficiency on the Paralympics until nowShe was appointed because the High-Performance coach of the Indian junior capturing crew and Avani began coaching beneath her in 2018, on the Lakshya Shooting Academy in Mumbai. Suma, a tough taskmaster however with empathy made certain to deal with Avani like every other athlete in order that she may very well be battle-hardened for the challenges to come back.“I treated her like other shooters at my academy. When she became a part of our academy, we got certain changes done to make the place para athlete-friendly. Working on her technique was the main focus as being technically sound at events like Paralympics matters the most,” stated Suma. While Avani gained the medal, those that witnessed the occasion would recall that she was beneath great stress to start with. Talking about how Avani was not in one of the best way of thinking and the way she calmed her down, Suma stated, “She wanted a great start but it was very shaky and that disturbed her. She was taking breaks and kept calling me. I calmed her down and finally by the end of the second series I could see that she was getting into her rhythm and the fear of competing in such a big stage was gone.”Shirur advised Avani to ‘focus on the technique’. “It was a very technical chat and I added that you are very courageous as well, so you can do it,”And if one had any doubts on the dedication of Shirur to her college students, the academy that she based for coaching shooters has the apt mission line: “Live for the glory of the game. Strive for perfection. Create and instill confidence, with sportsmanship spirit”Shirur’s fireplace to coach athletes to grow to be one of the best model of themselves has been the explanation why Avani has managed to interrupt the world file at such a younger age. During an interview final 12 months, Shirur had remarked:“I would say that as an athlete we are never satisfied, we always want to win, we want to win as many competitions as we can. That hasn’t changed even today. With my juniors, once we got out for a match there’s something inside me where I want to win as many matches as I can. Irrespective of whether my juniors become future Olympians or not, I really want them to have the qualities that Olympians have in them. I want to see that in all my athletes, I want an Olympian inside of them whether they actually make it or not.”It all the time takes a complete village to forge an Olympic successful athlete. It is a collective course of and whereas we applaud Avani for her subliminal efficiency, some reward needs to be directed to Shirur’s manner as nicely. With Avani set to compete in three extra occasions, we will be optimistic for extra medals from the dynamic student-coach duo.