Indian para athletes continue to impress at the Dubai World Para Athletics Championships as the high jumper Nishad Kumar booked his ticket for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games courtesy his bronze medal in the men’s high jump T47 final.
Nishad’s efforts made sure that India booked its 9th quota place for the 2020 Paralympic Games.
The bronze medal by Nishad took India’s medals’ tally to 6 in the World Para Athletics Championships. Nishad also helped India better its own performance of 2017 London World Championships where India had managed to secure 5 medals.
Nishad kicked off the contest on a very positive note as he managed to take the lead with the height of 1.75 m to 1.97 m in his opening attempts. However, China’s Hongjie Chen dethroned him from the top spot with a jump of 2 metres.
While it looked like the contest for the gold was between the Chinese and the Indian in the beginning, USA’s Roderick Townsend-Roberts, who was crowned champion in the Rio Olympics, stunned his opponents with a jump of 2.03 metres to take gold. Nishad had to be content with a bronze as the silver went to Hongjie Chen.
A pumped up Nishad said he was happy to win a medal in his maiden appearance at the World Championships. He added that he was actually doubtful of winning a medal against the top class athletes, but now that he has done it, he aims a medal at the 2020 Paralympics.
Nishad’s coach Satyanarayana, who had guided Mariyappan Thangavelu to the gold medal at Rio 2016, said Nishad is one of the strong medal contenders for India at the 2020 Paralympics as he has a lot of potential.
On Thursday, six Indian para athletes including the Rio gold medalist Mariyappan and the 2018 Asian games gold medalist Sharad Kumar will be seen in action at the World Para Athletics Championships.
