Devendra Jhajharia, the first differently-abled Indian to win a gold at the Para Athletics World Championships, will be handed a special cash reward of Rs five lakh by the Railways for his feat in the recently-held sixth edition of the event in Lyon, France.
Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge announced the special reward for Jhajharia while declaring open the 79th Railways Athletics Championships here today.
Jhajharia, an Office Superintendent working at Southeast Central Railway Zone headquarters in Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh), had won gold in javelin throw in F-46 category -- meant for one-armed athletes -- on July 21 in the sixth Para-Athletics World Championships.
"It's a great honour for me as the announcement came from the Railway Minister himself. It's great gesture from the Railways. It will instill confidence among the para-athletes to bring laurels for the country," Jhajharia told PTI.
Jhajharia was among a host of past and present Indian athletes, who are employees of Railways, present at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here.
"I need around Rs 5 lakh in a year for my training. I can now use this reward money for training. I have won gold in the Para Olympics (2004), Asian Games (2002) and World Championships. My target is to win gold for the second time in 2016 Rio Para Olympics," he said.
Meanwhile, dope-tainted quartermiler Sini Jose finished seventh in women's 400m race, clocking 57.40s. Jose, who was part of 2010 Commonwealth and Asian Games 4x400m relay gold-winning team, completed his two-year ban period last month.
Chavi Sharawat bagged gold in 55.71s while Priyanka Mondal (55.84s) and Sarita (56.42s) finished second and third.
The men's 400m race was won by Bibin Mathew in 47.59s while Neeraj Panwar (48.41s) and Jithin Paul (48.67s) came second and third respectively.
In men's 1500m race, Sajeesh Joseph bagged the gold, clocking 4:01.13s, while Jhuma Khatun came first in women's 1500m in 4:25.52s. V S Surekha won gold in women's javelin with a throw of 3.90m.
