Subedar Anandan Gunasekaran Lost His Leg in 2008 at LoC, Wins 3 Golds at 7th World Military Games at China

CHENNAI: Para athlete Anandan Gunasekaran opened India’s account at the Military World Games with a gold in the disabled men’s 100m IT1 event at Wuhan, China on Tuesday. The 32-year-old – who hails from Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu – won the event in 12 seconds. Peru’s Casas Jose came second in 12.65 seconds while Colombia’s Fajardo Pardo Teodicelo was third – clocking 12.72 seconds. He followed it up with another gold in the disabled men’s 400m IT1 event with a timing of 53.35 seconds. The second spot went to Colombia’s Teodicelo (58.95) while Ranchin Mickael (1:00.31) finished third.

Anandan – subedar with the Indian army – lost his left leg when a live mine went off as he was conducting a routine search at the LOC in Jammu & Kashmir’s Kupwara district back in June 2008. “For the first few months, I hid from my parents that I had lost a leg. When I went home with a wooden leg, they broke down. I could have chosen to sulk over my situation, but I decided to turn things around,” Anandan told TOI on Tuesday. His journey as a disabled athlete began with a 2.5K run as part of the Mumbai Marathon in 2012. “I ran that event with a wooden leg. Subsequently, I became aware of prosthetic legs and read up on South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius. His story inspired me. I thought if he could run with two prosthetic legs, I too can with one,” said Anandan, often called India’s Blade Runner.

Over the years, Anandan has consistently notched up medal-winning performances on the global stage. In 2015, Anandan won the 200m gold at the World Military Games in South Korea. He followed that up with 400m gold the next year at Asia Oceania championships. In 2017, Anandan clinched silver in the 400m event of World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai. The Asian Para Games in Jakarta last year saw Anandan bag a silver and bronze in the 400m and 200m events respectively.

While Anandan is proud of his achievements, he aims at competing with able-bodied athletes in future. “I have come this far thanks to the help of Indian army and support of GoSports Foundation. If there is one dream I have – it is to run along with able-bodied individuals in a competitive race,” said Anandan.

Source: ToI

Image Courtesy: IndiaTimes