Dilip Mahadu Gavit

Dilip Mahadu Gavit was born on 21 April 2003 in Toran Dongari, a farming village outside Nashik in Maharashtra. He helped in the fields early. Around five or six, a fall from a tree injured his right arm; without quick medical care the wound turned to gangrene and the arm was amputated below the elbow. He kept running on village roads anyway. At Shahid Bhagat Singh School in Surgana taluk, coach Vaijanath Kale spotted him at an interschool meet — still racing able-bodied fields, unaware of the para calendar — and brought him into VK Academy in Nashik. Kale funded early training and lodging when the family could not.

The 400 metres made him a national name first. Hangzhou’s Asian Para Games in 2023 (the 2022 Games) brought gold in the men’s 400 m T47 — India’s hundredth medal of that meet. Worlds kept him near the colour without giving it: fourth in Paris in 2023, then fourth again in New Delhi in 2025 after an Asian-record 48.20 s heat. Paris 2024 put him in a Paralympic final on debut; he finished eighth after qualifying third in his heat. Olympic Gold Quest support and Kale’s Nashik base stayed constant while the global medals stayed one place away.

Glasgow asked for a different event. Commonwealth Games para athletics had no 400 m T47, so Gavit leaned into the 100 he had been building through 2026 — Dubai Grand Prix gold, then a 10.64 s Asian record in Bengaluru. On 29 July at Scotstoun he ran from lane seven, closed hard over the last thirty metres, and won in 10.71 s for a Games record. Teammate Mohammed Basil took silver in 10.83 s; England’s Kevin Santos bronze. Gavit became the first Indian man to win Commonwealth Games para athletics gold — and only the second Indian para athlete onto that colour after Sharmila Dhankar’s F57 shot earlier in the same Games.

The story that lasts is the gap he closed between Worlds fourths and a multi-sport gold. Indian CWG para athletics now has a throws champion and a sprint champion in the same week. Gavit has already pointed at the Asian Para Games in Japan and LA28. What to watch is whether 10.64 and the Glasgow finish become Paralympic podium speed — or whether the 400, still his first love, is where the next colour finally sticks.