India’s tryst with medals at the Tokyo Paralympics gained an extra spring as Mariyappan Thangavelu clinched a silver in the men’s high jump T63 final. In the same event, Sharad Kumar secured bronze.
Mariyappan, the 26-year-old from Salem in Tamil Nadu, had won a gold in the T42 section during the previous edition at Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Cut to the latest Paralympics, he narrowly missed the glittering medal but his best of 1.86 m helped him seal the silver with Sharad following at 1.83 m. American Sam Grewe topped at 1.88 m to keep the two Indians at bay.
If shooting was a dampener for India in the preceding Olympics, amends have been made during the current Paralympics. Extending that vein of form was Singhraj Adhana, who won a bronze in the P1 men’s air pistol SH1 category. Singhraj finished with a score of 216.8, which proved adequate.
The cumulative effort of Mariyappan, Sharad and Singhraj boosted India’s overall medals tally to 10 inclusive of two golds, five silvers and three bronzes.
