Asian Games 2018: TejinderPal Singh dedicates shot put gold to cancer stricken father

Tejinderpal Singh Toor competed in the shot put final when his father was battling cancer in a hospital in Punjab. But the 23-year-old remained strong to bring home the gold and with it little joy at the time of such crisis in his family.

“This medal is my biggest achievement because a lot of sacrifices have been made. For the last two years, my father (Karam Singh) has been battling with cancer. My family though never let me get distracted. They allowed me to chase my dream. A lot of sacrifices have been made by my family and friends and all those have paid today,” Tejinder told the Press Trust of India after shattering records and rewriting them.

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He clinched India’s seventh gold and first in the shot put with a record throw of 20.75m at the 18^th Asian Games, setting a new national and Asian Games record with his throw. Tejinder broke the six-year-old record of 20.69m set by Om Prakash Karhana and also became first India to win an Asian gold in shot put since Bahadur Singh Sagoo had won it in 2002.

“My family never pressurized to attend my father in the hospital and it always was my friends, who take care of all the hospital formalities in my absence. I have not gone home much in this period since I was training in Dharamsala,” he added.

His opening and fourth throw of 19.96m was enough to bring him the gold ahead of Liu Yang of China (19.52m) and Ivan Ivanov of Kazakhstan (19.40m), both of whom registered their season’s best throws with a silver and bronze medal respectively. But Tejinder achieved even a higher score in his fifth and penultimate throw, covering a distance of 20.75.

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“I had just one aim in mind. I wanted to clear 21 metre,” he said. I did not think of gold. But I am happy with this. I was just trying hard to break the national record for the last 2-3 years and it happened today, that too with a meet record,” said the ecstatic champion.

He will return with the gold and meet his father, but Tejinder has only two days in hands before he begins his preparation for the next competition. He trains under MS Dhillon.