Indian shot-putter Inderjeet Singh has created history by becoming the first from the country to win a gold medal at the prestigious World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea.
In his first attempt though, Inderjeet started with a foul. In the second throw, Inderjeet covered a distance of 18.79m and improved it to 18.95m in the third. A fifth effort of 19.80m and then a final effort of 20.27m was good enough for Inderjeet to win gold.
For the last two months, the 27-year-old from Bhiwani has been in great form. During this time, Inderjeet won three Grand Prix events in Thailand, qualified for Rio Olympics in 2016 and won gold at the Asian Athletics Championships in Wuhan, China.
Inderjeet qualified for Rio with a throw of 20.65 metres at the Federation Cup in May. The qualification mark for the Olympics was 20.50 m. However, soon after the tournament, it was announced that Inderjeet does not have adequate financial resources to pursue his dreams. Although he was promised aid by the government later, the incident exposed the grave reality and hardships of being an athlete in India, if you are not playing cricket.
After the world championships next month, Inderjeet is likely to train under legendary shot-putter John Carl Godina.