The Paralympic Committee of India on Monday announced a cash prize of `5 lakh for javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia who won a gold medal at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France.
Jhajharia, who got the Padma Shri award last year, set a meet record in the F42 men’s event by throwing a distance of 57.04m on Sunday night.
He comfortably surpassed the old record of 55.90m of China’s Guo Chunliang created at the 2011 World Championships in New Zealand.
This was India’s first medal at the ongoing championships in Lyon.
Jhajharia is a one-armed javelin thrower from Rajasthan. He had won a gold medal in javelin at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens.