India achieved its best-ever medal haul at a single edition of the Paralympic Games in Paris and also surpassed the Tokyo gold tally after Praveen Kumar won a gold in men’s high jump T64 event on Friday.

Praveen cleared the bar set at 2.08m to clinch his second straight Paralympic medal, a personal best and a new Asian Record. He had won a silver medal at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021 after clearing a then personal best of 2.07m. USA’s Derek Loccident claimed the silver with a best jump of 2.06m while Uzbekistan’s Temurbek Giyazov, who notched a personal best 2.03m, finished third.

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He became the third high jumper after Sharad Kumar and Mariyappan Thagavelu to secure a medal in Paris. Sharad won a silver while Mariyappan took bronze in the men’s high jump T63 event.

With Praveen’s feat, India’s tally has soared to 26 medals — six gold, nine silver and 11 bronze — so far in Paris.

Earlier, Dharambir Nain set an Asian record of 34.92m to win the country’s fifth gold in the men’s club throw F51 final at the Paralympics, equalling that of Tokyo. India won five gold, six silver and eight bronze at the Tokyo Games.

Shooter Avani Lekhara started India’s gold rush at Paris when she defended her women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 Paralympic title. Nitesh Kumar won gold in para badminton men’s singles SL3. The top seed beat Great Britain’s second-seeded Daniel Bethell 21-14, 18-21, 23-21 in the gold medal match to win India its second gold medal.

Sumit Antil won India’s third gold medal in the men’s javelin throw F64 with a Paralympic record of 70.59m.

Harvinder Singh won a historic first-ever gold medal for India in para archery after defeating Poland’s Lukasz Ciszek 6-0 (28-24, 28-27, 29-25) in the men’s individual recurve open final to clinch his second straight medal at the Paralympic Games. This was India’s fourth gold medal in this edition of the Paralympics.

Second Paralympics medal for Praveen

Praveen Kumar, who hails from Govindgarh, Noida tasted success at the top level at an early age when he became the youngest para-athlete to win a medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. At 21, he has already won his second medal, in the form of a gold medal at Paris.

Praveen, who was born with a short leg took up sports to deal with inferiority complex, and soon found his passion for volleyball. He gradually started gaining interest towards field disciplines, and participated in a high jump event at an able-bodied athletics competition. During that competition, he came to know about the possibilities available for athletes with disabilities.

Praveen soon came under the wings of para-athletics coach Satyapal Singh, who fine-tuned his skills in high jump, and the youngster made an instant impact by pocketing a silver medal at the World Para Athletics Junior Championship in 2019 held in Nottwil, Switzerland as well as a gold medal with an Asian record from the World Para Athletics FAZZA Grand Prix in 2021 in Dubai.

He went on to win the gold at the Asian Para Games 2022, breaking the Asian record with a jump of 2.05m after his Tokyo Paralympics silver. Most recently, he won a bronze at the World Para Athletics Championship 2023 which helped him qualify for the Paris 2024 Paralympics.

From surviving near-fatal electrocution, judoka Kapil overcomes deteriorating vision to bag historic bronze

Judoka Kapil Parmar bagged India’s first-ever Paralympic medal in judo, winning a bronze in the men’s 60kg (J1) after convincingly thrashing Brazil’s Elielton de Oliveira 10-0 in the play-off in Paris late on Thursday. The J1 class in para judo is for the athletes who suffer from no to very low visual activity. Athletes in this category wear red circles to indicate that they may need guided support before, during and after a contest.

Parmar, a silver medallist at the 2022 Asian Games in the same category, hails from a small village named Shivor in Madhya Pradesh. Born to a taxi driver, Kapil is the youngest of four brothers and a sister, and like his siblings, he used to spend his spare time playing in the fields until he suffered a life-threatening accident when he accidentally touched a water pump, resulting in a severe electric shock.

He was found unconscious by a villager and taken to the hospital, where he remained in coma for six months.

Despite the setback, Parmar continued to pursue his passion in his school, before his mentor and coaches Bhagwan Das and Manoj introduced him to blind judo. Kapil also used to run a tea stall with his brother Lalit to make ends meet. Kapil gradually started to find success in the new discipline, when he won a silver at the Commonwealth Championships.