Kuala Lumpur: Uttar Pradesh's Hitesh Sachdeva (totally blind athlete) gave his personal best in the ongoing 1st Para Malayasian Athletics Championships 2012 and qualified for 2012 London Games in 'B' category in discus throw event. He hurled the discus to a distance of 9.63m and won Gold for India in Kualalumpur on Thursday.
However, Hitesh already achieved the 'B' qualification in recently held IWAS World Games, Sharjah and in Para National Athletics Championships 2012 held at Bangalore. Hitesh was very much sure to achieve the 'A' qualification in the championships, but due to misunderstanding of blind coach Satyapal Singh, he was given to a wrong BIB number and he was very disturbed at the last minute when officials refused him to participate in the tournament. After remedial work, he was allowed to participate and gave his best for India and won the gold medal.
He gave the credit of his success to coach Naval Singh, President PCUP - J.P. Singh and Secretary of PCUP Nitin Arya. He told that all the three persons keep most important place in my life. All these persons always stands near me and helped a lot. "I am very happy with my performance although I couldn't achieve the desired performance but it is satisfactory. In training sessions, I am hurling the discus to 10.09m but today it was not my day.”
Hitesh Sachdeva belongs to a small town of Puranpur Distt. Pilibhit in UP. His father is late Puran Sachdeva. Hitesh accidentally lost his both eyes when he was in 9th/10th class.
JP Singh, President of PCUP talked Hitesh on phone and assured him to give him more training-cum-competition exposure before London Paralympics.
Ram Karan Singh (1500m) and Vijay Kumar (Javelin Throw) also achieved 'A' qualification and booked the berth for London Paralympics.
India ranked no.1 till now in medal tally :
Gold -- 19
Silver -- 09
Bronze -- 03
