Inspirational Indian para-athlete Deepa Malik has sealed the top spot in the discus Asia Ranking 53 category and second place in the Asian Games combined category event 51/52/53 with a career-best throw of 8.01 meters on day two of the World Para Athletics Grand Prix 2018 in Dubai. With this superb effort, Deepa has qualified for the 2018 Asian Para Games to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia from October 8-16.
Deepa, famously, won silver in the shot put F-53 event at the 2016 Rio Paralympics with a best throw of 4.61m sealing her prize. Being confined to a wheelchair has clearly not been a deterrent for Deepa, one of India's most decorated athletes. A cursory glance at her achievements underscores that truism: the 47-year-old is an accomplished swimmer, adventure sports junkie, biker and entrepreneur and has had her name entered into the Limca Book of Record not once, but four times, and in 2016 became the first Indian woman to win a medal at the Paralympics.
Suffering a spinal tumour in 1999, which required three surgeries and 183 stitches between her shoulder blades and left her paralysed from the waist down, did not stop Deepa from chasing and achieving her dreams. A recipient of the Arjuna Award in 2012 for her achievements as a swimmer, she has swam across the Yamuna River against the current, covered a distance of over 3,000 km from Chennai to Delhi on a customised motorbike and scaled nine high altitude motorable passes in Ladakh in nine days.
