India’s Nishad Kumar turned into left emotionally overwhelmed after falling quick of gold and settling for the silver medal in the men’s high soar T47 class at the Paris 2024 Paralympics on Sunday.
The 24-year-old Indian para-athlete, he lost the gold medal to Roderick Townsend of the USA, recorded a height of 2.04 feet in the final. Nishad Kumar got his second Paralympic medal in this one. In Tokyo 2020, he achieved a clearance of 2.06 metres to place behind Townsend to won the silver medal.
Roderick, who scored a world record of 2.15 meters to win the gold medal at Tokyo 2020, achieved his career best on Saturday at the Stade de France with a height of 2.08 meters. As a result, this performance was enough for him to earn his third straight gold medal in the Paralympic T47 high jump event.
Impartial para athlete Georgii Margiev settled for bronze with a bounce of 2.00m. The T47 class is for athletes with a unilateral upper limb impairment. That causes some loss of function at the shoulder, elbow, and wrist.
The very last seemed a two-way contest from the start with Nishad, the reigning Para Asian Games champion, and Roderick. Consequently, both athletes pushed each other to new heights. Nishad’s first failure to clean the height came at 2.08m. Townsend, main with 2.06m, cleared the 2.08m mark on his second attempt.
After his 0.33 unsuccessful attempt, Nishad slumped into the foam, devastated. By way of the ignored possibility to upgrade his Tokyo medal. Townsend supplied some comforting phrases, looking to console him.
“Ultimate Tuesday, I cleared 2.10m in exercise, and today i stopped at 2.04. So i’m dissatisfied,” Nishad stated.
“This silver medal isn’t providing me more joy; rather, it reflects the defeats I’ve had to face at Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, world competitions, and now here at this Olympics.”
“I was so confident because, during training, I was consistently hitting 2.07 and 2.08. Nevertheless, despite this thorough preparation, I am, of course, disappointed. Ultimately, God knows why things didn’t turn out as expected.”
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This became India’s seventh medal on the Paris 2024 Paralympics and third in athletics. Preethi buddy received bronze medals within the 100m and 200m T35 class activities.
India is proud to have a parashooting team, which brought home four medals from an international competition. In the 10m air rifle standing SH1 category, Avani Lekhara shone by earning the gold medal, while Mona Agarwal also delivered an excellent performance to win the bronze. Additionally, Manish Narwal earned a silver medal in the men’s 10m air pistol SH1 category, demonstrating outstanding skill. Furthermore, Rubina Francis contributed to India’s victory by taking home the bronze in the women’s SH1 10m air pistol event. These achievements, therefore, instill pride in India by showcasing the talent and hard work of its para shooters.
