Gas cylinders and car tyres: How Devendra Jhajharia prepared for Tokyo Paralympics during pandemic

Double Paralympics gold medallist Devendra Jhajharia is not new to overcoming challenges. He has been doing it since the tender age of eight. It was then that the Churu village-resident touched a live wire and was electrocuted. The unfortunate incident led to his left arm being amputated and sent him on a new journey.

Jhajharia would find it difficult to convince his neighbours, who were once his friends, to play with him. But his love for sport didn't let him surrender to the situation as he would start to take keen interest in javelin throw. He competed with able-bodied athletes at school and district competitions and even beat them.

Since then, his dedication towards the sport has seem him scale incredible highs. Jhajharia won his first gold medal in javelin at Athens 2004 and followed it up with a second at Rio 2016. He could not compete in the intervening years as the F46 category, the one he participates in, wasn't part of the Paralympics programme.

But before his appearance at the Tokyo Paralympics, life threw another challenge at him, as he had to take an unusual route to train during the Covid-19 pandemic. He admits that his training regime became challenging but his coach Sunil Tanwar and wife Manju Jhajharia helped him through it.

"You couldn’t get out of the house, but had to remain fit. It’s like you have to clear the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) exam but are not allowed to read the textbooks," Jhajaria told Olympics.com.

"My coach (Sunil Tanwar) told me to make sure you don’t put on weight, because that can cause problems. More weight, means more fat, means you will get slower. Performance will go down. I was at home, so I started working out in the house itself, with whatever I had available, like a medicine ball.

"I used to do weight training with a gas cylinder, or would remove the tyres from the car and use that as weight. My wife had doubled up as my fitness trainer. I used to keep doing core exercises. That was the time that I was separated from my sport," the double Paralympics gold medallist added. The Olympics were also postponed, we were not sure whether they were going to take place at all. That time was very crucial," he added.

It was, however, not the only challenge that he faced during the pandemic as he also lost his father Ram Singh Jhajharia to cancer in October, 2020. But even before his father left for his heavenly abode, he wanted him to focus on his training for the Tokyo Paralympics.

"I was in Gandhinagar when the doctor informed my father that he had cancer. The doctor told him he had 10-15 days to live. My father told me I should focus on my sport, and that his wish was that I won one more medal. He sent me back to training. He said the other sons will take care of me. I think on about the 10th day, I got the message that he is very critical. I was in Gandhinagar when he passed away," Jhajharia recalled.

"According to our tradition we stay at home for 12 days. I was staying at home, but my mother told me to go back and rejoin the camp. She told me everyone else is here. The first week I couldn’t work at all. I was not fit physically or mentally. My coach and I would just go to the ground, talk to me, maybe jog around the ground," he added.

And now with his participation at Tokyo Paralympics a few days away, Jhajharia considers himself lucky to enter the showpiece event as a medal contender and hopes to breach the 67m mark.

He had created world records en route winning his first two medals -- hurling the javelin to a distance of 62.15 metres in Athens and 63.97 meters in Rio. Jhajharia is eyeing a third gold medal, and another world record, in Tokyo.