Avani Lekhara: The Marksman with the golden eye aiming for India's next gold

The 21-year-old Jaipur girl Avani Lekhara is a champion par excellence. As she clinched the Gold medal in R2 10 m air rifle standing SH1 category and set a record for India in the recently concluded Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China, Avani, the Padma Shri awardee and final year law student has been professionally shooting since she was almost 12 years old.

After an accident that partially restricted Avani’s movement, her father decided to help the little future champion take up air rifle shooting professionally as it was something she did as a hobby. Mr. Praveen Lekhara’s aim was to help his daughter overcome the accident and consolidate all her brilliance and will power into the sports which has eventually resulted in a new asian para games record with a total score of 249.6 and a gold medal India is so proud of.

It has been eight years now since Avani started shooting professionally and the most important thing she says was to learn how to control her breathing and keep her arm movement under control. The 21-year-old further adds that she hopes to inspire people to have faith in themselves and do well as Avani believes that if she could overcome her accident to become a national pride and padma shri awardee which the champion hadn’t expected so early in her career then everyone should expect the best out of themselves.

“I want people to look at me and feel they too can break the barriers and achieve wonders in life. My parents and brother have been my biggest support through and through. I always have there support. My younger brother Arnav accompanies me on my training schedules on many occasions.”

Next Avani is looking at the 2024 Paris Paralympics and hopes that yet again she will make the nation proud. While the champion personally doesn’t believe that there is much difference in gold, silver and bronze, As she says,

“Any sportsperson winning a medal for the country is one of the best sportspersons in the nation. When we go for events like Paralympics or the Asian games, it’s only the most competent of the lot that makes it at these platforms, so any medal for the nation is great” She adds that she hopes to add another gold in India’s kitty.