India's Mariyappan Thangavelu wins silver; Sharad Kumar bags bronze at Tokyo Paralympics

India’s Mariyappan Thangavelu gave his country yet another medal in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. He has managed to clinch the silver medal in the Men’s High Jump T63 final. He grabbed the second place with his best effort of 1.86m. It was the 26-year-old Thangavelu’s back-to-back medals in the mega event after he bagged the gold medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Although he couldn’t reach his personal best of 1.89m, Thangavelu bagged a medal for Team India. Sharad Kumar, in the meantime, won the bronze medal with his season’s best effort of 1.83m. Both Mariyappan and Kumar cleared 1.73m in their first attempt. The duo cleared the 1.77m mark as well in their first attempts. They passed the 1.80m and 1.83m hurdles as well.

Mariyappan Thangavelu fails to clear the 1.88m jump

The jumps made sure that India assure two more medals in the Paralympics. For the 1.86m mark, both the Indians missed the mark in their first attempts. Mariyappan failed in his second attempt, but aced his third attempt. For the 1.88m jump, he couldn’t clear in his first two attempts. In his third and final attempt, he failed and had to stay content with silver.

Sharad Kumar, on the other hand, failed in all three attempts in the 1.86m jump and bagged the bronze medal. Sam Grewe from the United States of America won the gold medal. After missing the first two attempts in the 1.88m, he nailed his third attempt. Had he missed the third attempt, he would have to share the gold medal with the Salem-born Mariyappan Thangavelu.

Along with Mariyappan and Sharad, Varun Singh Bhati was another Indian to take part in the event. Bhati cleared the 1.69m, 1.73m and 1.77m marks without breaking a sweat. However, his campaign in the Paralympics ended as he failed to cross the 1.80m mark.

In the T47 category, India’s Nishad Kumar had won the silver medal after his jump of 2.06m. USA’s Roderick Townsend and Dallas Wise won the gold and bronze medals respectively. India’s Rampal Chahar finished at the fifth position with a jump of 1.94m.

Image credits: Paralympic Committee of India/ANI