Praveen’s record-breaking jump helps India hit a golden six in Paralympics

Paris, Sep 6 (PTI) High jumper Praveen Kumar upgraded his Tokyo silver to a gold with a record-smashing performance, helping India nose ahead of the likes of Korea and Switzerland in the overall standings as the country’s para-athletes continued to defy projections in their best ever Paralympic performance here.

Later in the evening, Hokato Hotozhe Sema claimed the bronze medal with a personal best effort of 14.65m in the men’s shot put F57 final to end the day for India on a positive note.

The other Indian participant in the shot put final, Soman Rana ended fifth with a best throw of 14.07m.

Employed with the Indian Army and currently based in Pune, the Dimapur-born Sema started with 13.88m before touching 14.00m. He followed that with 14.40m, 14.65m, 14.15m and 13.80m.

Sema, 40, became involved in the sport after he lost his left leg in a landmine blast during a military operation in 2002.

The F57 category is for field athletes who compete while seated and have limb deficiencies or other impairments that don’t fit into other classes.

Earlier, the 21-year-old Praveen from Noida, who was born with a short leg, jumped to a new Asian record of 2.08m in the T64 category, which also featured athletes of T44 classification.

He clinched the top honours ahead of USA’s Derek Loccident (2.06m) and Uzbekistan’s Temurbek Giyazov (2.03m).

T64 is for athletes with movement moderately affected in one lower leg or the absence of one or both legs below the knee, while T44, to which Praveen belongs, is for athletes with movement affected at a low or moderate degree in one lower leg.

The country’s medal haul swelled to 27, including six gold, nine silver and 12 bronze medals. The performance surpasses all pre-Games projections and with one more day of competitions left, it is expected to get better.

Opting to start from 1.89m, Praveen aced seven jumps in his first attempt to put himself in pole position. The bar was then raised to 2.10m, with Praveen and Loccident fighting for the top spot but both failed to clear the mark.

Praveen, who was also the 2023 world championship bronze-medallist, recorded not just an Asian record but his personal best performance too.

His impairment, which is congenital, affects the bones that connect his hip to his left leg.

In his formative years, Praveen has confessed to grappling with feelings of inadequacy.

He started playing sports to deal with his insecurities and found a passion for volleyball. But his life changed when he took part in a high jump event at an able-bodied athletics competition.

He is the third high jumper after Sharad Kumar and Mariyappan Thangavelu to secure a medal in Paris.

Sharad and Thangavelu won silver and bronze in the men’s high jump T63 event on September 3.

Simran through to 200m final

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India’s Simran Sharma, the reigning world champion, breezed her way into the final of the women’s 200m T12 race with a time of 25.03 seconds.

Simran had earlier topped her heat and entered the semifinals with a timing of 25.41s.

Simran was in the same heat as Germany’s Katrin Mueller-Rottgardt, who had pipped her to bronze on Thursday night in the 100m final.

The Indian, who became world champion this year in Kobe and is accompanied by her coach Abhay Singh in the event, faced numerous challenges throughout her life, including her father’s chronic illness and eventual passing.

On Thursday, Simran had missed out on a medal, in the women’s 100m, finishing fourth with a timing of 12.31 seconds in the four-player final.

Simran was born prematurely and spent the next 10 weeks in an incubator where it was discovered that she is visually impaired.

Bhavanaben finishes creditable fifth

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Bhavanaben Ajabaji Chaudhary finished a creditable fifth with a personal best effort of 39.70 in the women’s javelin throw F46 final.

During the competition, she produced a personal best throw of 39.70 but that was not enough for her to finish on the podium as the other came up with much bigger throws.

Canoers enter semifinals

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Indian canoers Prachi Yadav and Yash Kumar qualified for the semifinals of women’s VL2 200m and men’s KL1 200m events after finishing fourth and sixth in their respective heat.

While Prachi and Pooja Ojha clocked 1:06.83s and 1:16.09s in the women’s va’a single 200m VL2 heat 1 and KL1 200m heat 2 respectively, Yash came up with a timing of 1:03.27s in men’s KL 200m heat.

The semi-finals will take place on Saturday.

Winner of each heat qualify directly to the final, while the remainder goes to the semifinals. The three fastest athlete of each semifinal make it to the final.

KL1 classification is for athletes with no or extremely limited trunk function and no function in the legs, while VL2 is for those with partial leg and trunk function, able to sit up straight in the kayak but may require a high-backed seat.

Javelin thrower Dipesh ends last

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India’s Dipesh Kumar finished last in the final of the men’s javelin throw F54 event. The 19-year-old finished at the bottom in a seven-man field with a best throw of 26.11m. Dipesh was the last athlete to throw in his event and needed above 30m to be in contention for a podium. However, he finished well short of that mark.

Athletes classified in F54 category compete in field events from a seated position. Different disability groups compete in this class, including people with spinal cord injuries.