'People now recognise me': Tokyo gold medallist Sumit Antil on new-found fame

The year 2020 came with its fare share of lessons for Tokyo Paralympics gold medallist Sumit Antil . He learned to train alone, take tough decisions, and never stop looking for ways to improve amid the adversity. He now looks back at last year’s challenges as an important factor in getting him the gold medal in F64 para javelin throw . There were many discoveries made last year but one breakthrough was finding the right prosthetic leg. Before December last year, Antil was using a prosthetic leg that is used by runners. This Ottobock Challenger negatively impacted his training. Because it is especially designed for runners, the leg has springs which resulted in Antil losing contact from the ground in the process of throwing the javelin. “That (Ottobock Challenger prosthetic leg) was a big disadvantage for me as the connection between me and the ground would go missing due to the spring at one time during the process of the throw. The power that is generated from the bottom, from the ground, which is a huge factor in javelin, I was losing that power due to those prosthetic legs,” Antil told Firstpost. It was not only affecting his performance but also hurting his back. [caption id=“attachment_9924851” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Sumit Antil broke the javelin throw record thrice in a space of five throws at the Tokyo Paralympics. AP[/caption] For these reasons, he was on the look out for a leg that could help him keep free from injuries as well as ensure a gold medal-like performance and in December, he found one thanks to GoSports Foundation. “Arnav Bhaiya at GoSports Foundation told me there is one prosthetic leg that can help you in javelin. Let’s try and use that and see the results.” It was the Ossur Cheetah Xplore that helped him in generating more power from the ground into his throw and reduced the injuries. But Sumit says he is yet to become fully used to the new prosthetic leg that won him the gold medal in Tokyo . “I use a different leg in gym and in throw, I use this one. I may take more than five months to get used to it,” he said. When asked what has been the biggest challenge for him as a para javelin thrower, he only talks about the pain. Throwing a javelin with an unnatural leg and keep doing it day in and day out was utterly painful. There were days when the wounds would hurt for a week and the wait to heal it would frustrate him but he got back to training again. Antil says he has worked hard on fitness mostly at home in the last two years. He was not the one who was going to leave any stone unturned to prepare for the Games. At SAI camp, last year, when he saw his workout sessions not going the way he liked, he resigned from the camp, returned home and started training in his fields. “I spent a few months at SAI and then I resigned from the camp because I was unable to do my workout over there properly. I was not getting the full diet that was required. Also my mother was not well so I decided to come back home. I have done most of the training at home. I did my technical workouts in Delhi,” he said. Sumit wanted to become a wrestler but fate had something else written for him. The accident snatched his dream of walking in the footsteps of his idol Yogeshwar Dutt but he still feels the tackle sport gifted him one very important trait that helped him clinch gold. Power. “Thanks to wrestling, I was blessed with good power in my body. When I started competing in javelin throw, I just had to work on technique.” With the gold medal, many new changes have happened in his life. Sumit would soon feature in TV ads, details of which he can’t share, but he is excited for a couple of stints that are in the making. Who knows two of India’s two top javelin stars may come together in one. “The way people have supported us is unbelievable. People now know me. A lot has changed for me. They recognise me in the public. I hope this continues.”