Tokyo Paralympics: Mariyappan Thangavelu & Sharad Kumar win silver and bronze medals in the T42 High Jump event as India’s medal tally reaches double figures

India has hit double digits in its medal tally at the Paralympics with Mariyappan Thangavelu winning silver and Sharad Kumar winning bronze in the High Jump T42 event today.

India has hit double digits in its medal tally at the Paralympics with Mariyappan Thangavelu winning silver and Sharad Kumar winning bronze in the High Jump T42 event today.

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Mariyappan Thangavelu who already won Gold in the last Paralympics Games at Rio in 2016. He cleared a height of 1.86 metres to achieve the medal. Sharad Kumar had cleared a height of 1.83 metres to clinch the bronze medal. The gold medal was American para-athlete Sam Grewe who was successful in soaring above them all with a best of 1.88 metres on his third attempt. The third Indian who qualified for the Final stages, Varun Singh Bhati finished at seventh out of the nine those who qualified as he failed to clear a height of 1.77 metres.

The T42 classification is for those para-athletes with a leg deficiency, differences in leg length, impaired muscle power or impaired passive range of movement in their legs. These classifications are done for para-athletes so that they can compete on an equal footing with other para-athletes with similar abilities as them.

India has won three medals today. Shooter Singhraj Adania won a bronze in the men’s 10 metres Air Pistol SH1 event. India, otherwise, had a mixed day with the women’s table tennis team of Bhavinaben Patel and Sonalben Patel losing to the Chinese team in the quarter-finals. Rubina Francis ended up seventh at her Women’s 10 metre Air Pistol SH1 event. Rakesh Kumar was knocked out in his quarter-final match in the Compound Archery category. Bhagyashri Jadhav finished seventh in the Women’s Shot Put F34 event. In total, India has won 10 medals which is an astounding number that includes 2 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 3 bronze medals. They are now placed 30th at the medal table.