Mariyappan Thangavelu
Tokyo: Mariyappan Thangavelu and Sharad Kumar made the country proud by winning the Silver and the Bronze medals respectively at the Men’s High Jump T63 final at Tokyo Paralympics on Tuesday. This is Mariyappan’s second medal from the Paralympic Games; in Rio 2016, he had won the gold.
The Indian medal tally reached 10 following the day’s events. Earlier, Singhraj Adhana won the bronze medal in the 10m air pistol SH1 event.
Mariyappan’s highest jump of 1.86m in the final has been a season best score. Sharad also finished with the season’s best jump of 1.83m en route to his Bronze medal. Both are classified under T42 category, i.e. athletes have one or more impairment types affecting hip and/or knee function in one or both limbs and with activity limitations.
Tamil Nadu-based para athlete Mariyappan had been training at the SAI centre in Bangalore under coach Satyanarayana prior to the Tokyo Paralympics. He won the Padma Shri and the Arjuna Awards in 2017 as well as the Khel Ratna in 2021. He has competed in five international competitions.
Sharad Kumar had been training in Ukraine for over two years prior to the Tokyo Paralympics under foreign coach Nikitin Yevhen at full cost to the Government of India, to the tune of Rs 80.75 Lakh from TOPS and Rs 21.72 Lakh from ACTC. He had won the gold medal at the Asian Para Games 2018 and the Silver in World Para Athletics Championship 2019.
Haryana-based shooter Singhraj, won the bronze with a total of 216.8 points.
– global bihari bureau
