India’s Praveen Kumar clinched the country’s 11th position by winning a silver medal in the men’s high jump T64 event at the ongoing Games here on Friday.
The 18-year-old Kumar, competing in his debut Paralympics, set a new Asian record with a jump of 2.07m to be behind Great Britain’s Jonathan Broome-Edwards, who clocked his season’s best effort of 2.10m for the gold.
It was also Kumar’s personal best and his first major medal after taking up the sport in 2019. The teenager hails from Noida and is now the youngest medalist in the Indian contingent here.
The bronze medal went to Poland’s Rio Games champion Maciej Lepiato with an effort of 2.04m.
Paralympic Classification
The T64 classification is for athletes with a leg amputation who compete with prosthetics in a standing position.
T44, the disability classification that Kumar belongs to but is eligible to compete in T64, is for athletes with a lack of a leg, leg length differences, impaired muscle strength or passive range of motion in the legs.
See more: Paralympics: Mariyappan, Sharad win silver and bronze in high jump
Her weakness, which is congenital, affects the bones that connect her hip to her left leg.
big win for india
The ongoing Games are proving to be India’s best ever and the country has won two gold, six silver and three bronze medals so far.
Kumar is the second teenager in the Indian contingent after shooter Avani Lekhara to win a medal in the Games. Lekhara won the gold medal and is 19 years old.
The track and field events were expected to give India a decent medal tally and the script is unfolding exactly as expected.
Eight of India’s 11 medals have come from athletics, including a gold in the men’s javelin throw through Sumit Antil (F64).
India has so far won five silver medals along with bronze in the field of athletics.
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