National Para Athletics: Deepa Malik Acknowledges Host City Bhubaneswar As ‘Sports Capital Of India’

Bhubaneswar: Over 1,000 para athletes, including a record 25% women participants, will vie for glory in the Indian Oil 20th National Para Athletics Championships 2022 to be held in Bhubaneswar from March 28 to 31.

Speaking at the media briefing on Saturday, Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) president Deepa Malik thanked Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik for creating a great sporting culture in the state, “which prompted us to organize the event in Bhubaneswar – the ‘Sports Capital of India’.”

“I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the Government of Odisha, KIIT University and Para Sports Association of Odisha for organizing the event. We want para-athletics to become mainstream and not just be a CSR-based event,” said Deepa, the first Indian woman to win a medal in Paralympics and also the first female president of PCI.

Providing the break-up of participants, officials informed that there will be 763 athletes with physical disabilities, 153 visually impaired athletes, 44 with cerebral palsy, 7 with intellectual disabilities and 20 short-stature athletes.

Of the total participants, 18% will be wheelchair bound.

Tokyo Paralympics medallists Devendra Jhajharia, Sumit Antil, Yogesh Kathunia, Nishad Kumar, Mariyappan Thangavelu, Praveen Kumar, Sharad Kumar and Sundar Singh Gurjar will be among the star attractions at the four-day meet.

Competitions will be held in multiple events across 12 disciplines in 185 categories.

For the first time in National Para Athletics history, there will be computerized photo finish, data analysis and inputs, and electronic measures like time-keeping all events and digital data entries.

Among others present at the media briefing today were Odisha government joint secretary Bijayananda Nayak, ED (Corporate Communication) Indian Oil Dr Uttiya Bhattacharya, Chairman Para Athletics Satyanarayan and Para Sports Association of Odisha president Kamla Kanta Ratha.