Disappointed despite winning third world title with record throw, Sumit Antil sets sights on bigger challenges
When he walked into the mixed zone at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru stadium on Tuesday night, Sumit Antil hardly looked like someone who had just smashed a Championship Record (CR) to win a third straight World Championship gold.
Competing in the T64 category of the men’s javelin throw competition at the Para Athletics World Championships, the 27-year-old registered a throw of 71.37m and, in doing so, erased his own mark of 70.83m that he had set while winning his first world title in Paris in 2023. His nearest competitor, Tomas Soto Mina of Colombia, had a best throw of 48.38m — nearly 25 meters behind.
Yet after his event, Sumit had the sheepish smile of someone who knew he could have done better. “I was thinking I’d throw much more. I was thinking I would get a new World Record (WR). But at least I got the CR,” he said.
If Sumit was disappointed, that’s because when the two-time Paralympic champion walked into the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Tuesday evening, his only real competition was with himself.
Ahead of the event, Sumit’s category – F64 (for athletes with moderately affected movement in one or both lower legs or the absence of legs below the knee) had been separated from the F44 (for athletes with available movement moderately affected in one lower leg), vastly reducing the competitiveness of the field he was up against.
Coming into the competition, Sumit held the world record of 73.29m. His nearest competitor was Derek Loccident of the USA who had a personal best of 47.58m.
“There is hardly any competition in F64. Honestly, to get that motivation to compete is a little difficult for me. Only if I can break my record can there be some excitement,” a candid Antil, had told Sportstar before the World Championships.
Training at the Sports Authority of India centre in Sonipat, Sumit felt he was in top shape for the event until a couple of days before. “Everything was going well. But then, suddenly, I just woke up the wrong way. My neck and arm were sore. My hand wasn’t working properly. It was just thanks to my physio that I was even able to compete,” he says.
That meant Sumit’s original target — a new WR was always going to be hard. “I came here with the target of throwing 75m. That got harder still after his warm-up throw. “I was fine at the start of my warm-up throws, but then suddenly, when I threw with some power, I got a lot of pain in my neck. It was hurting throughout the competition,” he would say.
It was clear after his very first throw of 65.59m that Sumit was far from his best. After four throws, he had a best of 68.40m. It was well ahead of the field, but a long way off from where he sees himself. That’s when he says he pushed himself through the pain once more and got his best throw of the competition.
Sumit has been dealing with a reccurring back ailment for a while now and it’s not clear why he needed to make that big effort so late in the competition when he was so far ahead of the pack. But the answer is obvious to Sumit.
There’s one theory. It was around the fourth throw that the giant screen at JLN stadium showed visuals of former Olympic and World Champion Neeraj Chopra, who had come to watch the javelin throw event. Could the visual of Neeraj in the stadium have driven him to push himself past his limit?
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But that’s not what Sumit believes. After the competition, Sumit was told by reporters that Neeraj had described him as a sher (lion) among athletes. To this Sumit would say that in fact all para athletes were shers.
He’s not just throwing to win, but also to prove a point. “I’m trying to throw as far as possible as a para athlete. I’ve heard a lot of people say that para athletes aren’t as good as regular athletes. That we can’t throw so well. I want to prove that’s not true,” he says.
He has many more opportunities to get this. His 2025 season might have ended without the result he wanted, but 2026 beckons. “I’ll get an MRI done to see if everything is ok with my shoulder. If everything is fine, I’ll be preparing for the Para Asian Games,” he says.
Sumit believes the big throw he wants will come. “When I started to throw, no one believed that a para athlete could even throw 70 meters. I’ve been throwing that for many years now. I want to get that number to 75m or even 80m. I know that in the future, as long as I compete, I will get there,” he says.
Published on Sep 30, 2025