CDS (II) 2022 General Knowledge · Question 59 of 120

Correct — C, Shooting. Avani Lekhara is a para rifle shooter in the SH1 classification, the category for athletes who can hold and support the weight of their own rifle. At the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics she won gold in the women's 10 metre air rifle standing SH1 with a Paralympic-record final score of 249·6, becoming the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic gold, and added a bronze in the 50 metre rifle three positions SH1 at the same Games. She is from Jaipur in Rajasthan and shoots from a wheelchair, having been paralysed in a road accident in 2012 when she was eleven. She received the Khel Ratna in 2021 and the Padma Shri in 2022 — the year this paper was set, which is why the examiner reached for her name.

• (a)Table Tennis — The table tennis association is a real confusion from the same Games — Bhavina Patel won India's first medal at Tokyo 2020, a silver in the women's singles class 4. Two different athletes, two different sports.
• (b)Cycling — India won no cycling medal at the Tokyo Paralympics, and Lekhara has never competed in the sport.
• (d)Boxing — Para boxing is not on the Paralympic programme at all, so no Indian Paralympic medallist can come from it.

Paralympic shooting is divided by how much support an athlete needs. SH1 covers competitors who can bear the weight of the firearm themselves; SH2 covers those who need a spring stand to take the weight of the rifle. Within SH1, the events mirror able-bodied shooting — 10 metre air rifle and air pistol, 50 metre rifle in three positions — and are shot standing, or from a wheelchair where the athlete competes in the standing category.

Sports current affairs questions are best stored as clusters rather than as single names, because the exam draws from the same Games repeatedly. For Tokyo 2020 the cluster worth carrying is: Avani Lekhara, shooting, India's first Paralympic gold by a woman, and a second medal in the same Games; Bhavina Patel, table tennis silver; Sumit Antil, javelin gold with a world record; Pramod Bhagat, badminton gold; Krishna Nagar, badminton gold; Manish Narwal, pistol gold. India's nineteen medals at Tokyo were then its best ever. One line the exam could not carry: at Paris 2024 Lekhara defended her 10 metre air rifle standing SH1 title, becoming the first Indian woman with two Paralympic golds.

• Avani Lekhara competes in para rifle shooting, SH1 class — 10 metre air rifle standing and 50 metre rifle three positions.
• At Tokyo 2020 she won gold in the 10 metre air rifle standing SH1 with a Paralympic record of 249·6, and bronze in the 50 metre rifle three positions SH1.
• She was the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic gold medal.
• She received the Khel Ratna in 2021 and the Padma Shri in 2022.
• She is from Jaipur, Rajasthan, and was paralysed in a road accident in 2012.
• She won a second Paralympic gold in the same event at Paris 2024, after this paper was set.

• Swapping Avani Lekhara with Bhavina Patel, who won the table tennis silver at the same Games.
• Assuming every Paralympic sport has an able-bodied counterpart on the programme; boxing does not appear at the Paralympics.
• Reporting only one Tokyo medal for her; she won two, a gold and a bronze.

As a name-the-sport item, as a first-Indian-to-do-something item, or as a match-the-athlete-to-the-event item drawn from one Games.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In Paralympic shooting, the SH2 classification differs from SH1 in that SH2 athletes

  • (a)shoot only from the prone position
  • (b)use a spring stand to support the weight of the rifle
  • (c)compete only with pistols
  • (d)shoot at half the standard distance

  Answer(b) use a spring stand to support the weight of the rifle — SH1 athletes bear the firearm's weight themselves.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Bhavina Patel won India's first medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in which sport?

  • (a)Shooting
  • (b)Badminton
  • (c)Table tennis
  • (d)Athletics

  Answer(c) Table tennis — she took silver in the women's singles class 4.