India’s Paralympic champion Navdeep Singh has appealed for the inclusion of men’s F41 javelin throw in the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympics programme and taken up shot put as a backup, refusing to let uncertainty over his primary event derail his preparations for the next Games.
The 25-year-old, who won bronze in the men’s F41 javelin throw at the recently concluded Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya with an effort of 42.55 metres, said he had started training for shot put after learning that javelin would not feature in his category at LA28.
Navdeep, who won gold at the Paris 2024 Paralympics with a personal best of 47.32 metres, has already claimed a shot put gold at the national championships and will now prepare for both disciplines in the hope of keeping his options open.
“As soon as I found out that I could not compete in javelin at LA28, I started preparing for shot put alongside it. I even won a gold medal in shot put at the nationals. Now, as soon as the Asian Games are over, I will prepare for both events,” Navdeep told PTI in an interview.
The athlete said he had approached members of the national federation and urged them to appeal to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the global governing body of the Paralympic Movement, seeking the inclusion of javelin in the Games programme. “I spoke to our federation members and told them to put an appeal before the IPC, the body that listens to athletes’ problems. In athletics, we have only one event left, shot put. Apart from that, we don’t have any other event,” he said.
“If athletes in our category are to participate in LA, they will only be able to compete in shot put. At least athletes should have the option to choose between events, as others do. That is why we have made this appeal.”
Navdeep said the inclusion of javelin at next year’s World Championships had given him hope that the event could also find a place in the LA28 programme. “The positive response is that we have an event at next year’s World Championships. So we will try to get the event included at LA28 too,” he said.