National Para Athletics Championships 2025: Soman Rana stuns Hokata Sema to take gold in F57 shot put
National Para Athletics Championships 2025: Soman Rana stuns Hokata Sema to take gold in F57 shot put
Soman Rana pulled off a surprise victory in the men’s shot put F57 event, clinching gold ahead of Paris Paralympic bronze medallist Hokata Sema, who had to settle for silver in the National para athletics championships at the Nehru Stadium here on Wednesday.
Rana, who is representing Bihar, heaved the 4Kg iron ball to a distance of 14.42 while Hokata of Services could come up with just a 13.53m.
“We train (Soman & Hokata) together in the Army Paralympic Node in Pune. We are very good friends, who help each other. It feels happy to win the gold,” said Rana, who had finished fourth in Tokyo Olympics and fifth in Paris.
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Hokata said he is very happy for his friend Rana but said the platform was not of good quality. “It was a football ground. The platform was not good, it moves when you throw it and when we throw with full power, we lose our balance,” said Hokata.
Deepthi Jeevanji of Telangana, the Paris Paralympic bronze medallist and gold medallist in the 2024 World Championships and the Hangzhou Asian Games, ran a confident race to emerge a comfortable winner in the women’s 400m T20 category in a time of 57.85s.
