The 26-year-old from Sonipat, Haryana, surpassed the previous Paralympic record of 68.55m in Tokyo three years ago.
Antil remains the world record holder in this category with a throw of 73.29m.
Antil, the world champion, joined shooter Avani Lekhara as the second Indian to defend a Paralympic gold medal.
Lekhara has achieved this feat in the women’s 10m air rifle SH1 event at Paris Paralympics after his first win in the same event at the Tokyo Games.
Antil is part of an exclusive group of three Indians who have won two Paralympic gold medals, together with Avani Lekhara and Devendra Jhajharia, who clinched the javelin throw F46 gold in the 2004 Athens and 2016 Rio Games.
Antil’s recent achievements include winning gold at the World Para Athletics Championships in 2023 and 2024, and at last year’s Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China.
In the second round a throw of 70.59m in Paris ensured dominance, while other important efforts included 69.11m in the opening attempt and 69.04m in the fifth. However, he fell short of his personal goal of breaching the 75m mark.
The F64 category silver medal went to Sri Lanka’s Dulan Kodithuwakku with a throw of 67.03m, and Australia’s Michal Burian took the bronze with 64.89m.
Among other Indian competitors, Sandeep and Sandip Sanjay Sargar finished fourth and seventh with distances of 62.80m and 58.03m respectively.
Category F64 includes athletes with lower extremity disabilities, who compete using a prosthesis or are affected by leg length differences.
Antil’s journey in the sport began after he lost his left leg below the knee in a motorcycle accident in 2015. A student of Ramjas College in Delhi, Antil was involved in wrestling before the accident resulted in amputation.
Introduced to the javelin by his village’s para athletes in 2018, he even competed against Tokyo Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra in the mighty Indian Grand Prix series in March 2021, finishing seventh with a throw of 66.43m.
On the same day, Yogesh Kathuniya won his second Paralympic silver in the F-56 category men’s discus throw with a maximum distance of 42.22m.
The 27-year-old achieved a podium-clinching distance in his first attempt.
Brazil’s Claudiney Batista dos Santos set a new Games record of 46.86m to win her third straight gold, while Greece’s Konstantinos Tzounis took bronze with a throw of 41.32m.
The F-56 classification includes athletes with limb deficiencies, leg length differences, impaired muscle strength, and limited range of motion.
Kathuniya developed Guillain-Barre syndrome at age 9, a rare autoimmune condition that causes numbness, tingling, and muscle weakness that can lead to paralysis. He was able to recover and return to mobility thanks to his mother, Meena Devi, who learned physiotherapy techniques to help with his rehabilitation.
Kathuniya is a commerce graduate from Delhi’s Kirori Mal College, and in addition to two Paralympic silver medals, she has three world championship medals to her name.
On Sunday, Preethi Pal made history by becoming the first Indian female track and field athlete to win two medals at the Paralympics.
The 23-year-old secured bronze in the 200m T35 category with a personal best time of 30.01 seconds, adding to his previous bronze in the 100m T35 category. She joins shooter Avani Lekhara as the only Indian women to win two medals in one Paralympics, with Lekhara bagging gold and bronze in Tokyo.
Preethi, a farmer’s daughter from Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, was born with significant physical challenges. His lower body was in plaster for six days after birth, resulting in weak legs and irregular leg posture. He underwent various treatments, including wearing calipers for eight years from the age of five.
The T35 classification includes athletes with coordination disorders such as hypertonia, ataxia, and athetosis.
Nishad Kumar, who hails from Una in Himachal Pradesh, bagged India’s third para-athletics medal and seventh in Paris. Paralympics with silver in the men’s T47 high jump category.
The 24-year-old achieved a season’s best effort of 2.04m. Nishad, who lost his right arm in a lawnmower accident at the age of six, had earlier won silver in Tokyo with a jump of 2.06m.
