Shillong, Aug 1: History was made today as Shillong-born para shot putter Soman Rana clinched gold for India at the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow.
Competing in the men’s F57 event, Rana, an Asian Para Games silver medallist in 2022, hurled the globe for a season’s best 13.40m to stand on top of the podium.
Compatriot Shubham Juyal (season’s best 13.28m) pocketed the silver, while Cameroon’s Cedric Azamdzi (12.57m) took home the bronze.
The shot put F57 category is a discipline requiring seated, strapped-in athletes to generate power entirely through the upper body and torso. Glasgow marked the debut of the men’s F57 shot put event at the Commonwealth Games. He has also represented India in the Paralympics in 2021 and 2024.
His family is from Bihar and as a young man he joined the Indian Army. However, on 1st December 2006, while serving with his unit in a field area in Jammu and Kashmir, Rana lost part of his right leg in a land mine explosion.
Rana was inducted into the Army Paralympic Node in 2017.
(Photo: Soman Rana/Facebook)
