Karam Jyoti Dalal (R)
Last year, three false starts at the Rio Paralympics had left Karam Jyoti Dalal heartbroken. The let-down was especially painful, given how the discus thrower had to go through a legal tussle to make it to the quadrennial event.
On Friday night, the 30-year-old assuaged that disappointment with a bronze medal in discus throw at the World Para Athletics Championships in London. Dalal won the medal with a season-best throw of 19.02m in the F55 category after China’s Yang Liwan’s attempt of 19.56 was declared as a false throw, making her the third Indian medallist after Sundar Singh Gurjar and Amit Saroha.
“I got the false starts in Rio because the fewer number of belts caused my chair to move,” Dalal told the Indian Express from London. “During the last year, I have increased the number from two to six belts. It was tough initially, but I am still learning to make it perfect. This was my season’s best and I have left Rio behind. The target is Tokyo 2020 Olympics and I will aim to get past the 20m mark.”
Daughter of retired Army havildar Daljit Singh, Dalal played kabaddi for Haryana at the national level before a fall from the first floor of their home left her a paraplegic. Dalal became a teacher in her village Thiri near Rohtak before a chance meeting with a para-athlete led her to athletics coach Amardeep, who introduced her to discus throw.
“We are a family of wrestlers and Jyoti too started training with the dumbbells,” says elder brother Jagmohinder Singh. “When she took up the sport, she would call all the kids to help her draw the diameters on the ground.”
Titles at the senior nationals were followed by bronze medals in shot put and discus throw events at the 2014 Asian Para games in Incheon — for which Dalal received cash prizes from the Haryana government, which in turn paid for the second-hand car that made the 18km commute to Rohtak easier. She missed the bronze — and an automatic Rio berth — at the World Para Games in Doha in 2015 but a personal best saw her finish seventh in the world rankings, and eligible for a quota place.
However, with Deepa Malik too ranked seventh in shot put, the Paralympic Committee of India held retrials last year and the Delhi High court decided to award the quota to Malik. Efforts by SAI director general Injeti Srinivas and constant communication with IOC led to an additional quota place being awarded to India in August.
Post Rio, Dalal spent time correcting the upper-body motion. She won the title in shot put event at the FAZAA Grand Prix in March but father Daljit believes nothing compares to the medal won at the World Championships.
