Shooter Avani Lekhara bounces back to win gold at Paris Paralympics after surgery for painful gallbladder stones

When the Rajasthan shooter won the gold medal in the women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH 1 final at the Chateauroux Shooting Range, her father Praveen Kumar Lekhara was a relieved man. (Reuters)

Five months before the Paris Paralympics, 22-year-old shooter Avani Lekhara underwent an operation to remove gallbladder stones.

The pain affected her training too. So in March, she decided to have an operation.

When the Rajasthan shooter won the gold medal in the women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH 1 final at the Chateauroux Shooting Range, her father Praveen Kumar Lekhara was a relieved man. The gold was her third medal overall at the Paralympics, to go with the gold and bronze she won three years ago in Tokyo. (Read more from Nitin Sharma)