A great achievement for the daughter of daily wage workers from Kalleda in Warangal as Deepthi Jeevanji, accomplished an outstanding feat in the World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan.
Just a few years ago she could not even afford a bus ticket to Hyderabad for training. She won gold in the women’s 400-meter T20 event with a time of 55.07 seconds, beating the previous record.
This beat the previous mark of 55.12 seconds, which was achieved in 2023 in Paris during the World Championships by American Breanna Clark.
Deepthi did a great start leading the opening 200 metres of the race. Deepthi made a drive in the final five metres to win, even though Clark got closer. Aysel Onder of Turkey placed second with 55.19 seconds, and Lizanshela Angulo of Ecuador took third place with 56.68 seconds.
However, it was in the year 2010 that Deepthi’s talent as a runner was spotted by PT coach Biyani Venkateshwaralu at the Rural Development Foundation (RDF) School in the village. She would often outrace able-bodied students which prompted the coach got her enrolled for 100m and 200m training.
‘When I first saw Deepthi, I was impressed by her strength and ability to run. I had to run with her on the track to make her understand the idea of the running track. But she would not talk with anybody. She won the 100m at the state level’, said Venkateshwaralu.
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