Tokyo Paralympics: Nishad Kumar wins silver in high jump, breaks Asian record

Para-athlete Nishad Kumar has clinched another medal for India in the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics. He won a silver medal for India in the high jump event. 

ALSO READ: Every medal we win will inspire millions into sport: Tendulkar after Bhavina’s historic silver in Paralympics

Kumar also broke the Asian record after making a jump of 2.06m. American jumpers Roderick Townsend and Dallas Wise went on to win gold medal and bronze medal respectively. Nishad and Wise both finished on the same mark, but Nishad had crossed the 2.02 mark in his first attempt while Wise took two, as a result, Nishad won silver.

WATCH: 

Townsend made a jump of 2.15m, whereas, Wise recorded a jump of 2.06m. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to congratulate the athlete for his win. He wrote: “More joyful news comes from Tokyo! Absolutely delighted that Nishad Kumar wins the Silver medal in Men’s High Jump T47. He is a remarkable athlete with outstanding skills and tenacity. Congratulations to him. #Paralympics”.

Earlier, India won its first medal at the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics 2020 as star player Bhavinaben Patel won the historic silver in women’s table tennis (Class 4) on Sunday (August 29). She went down 0-3 to world number one Chinese paddler Ying Zhou. 

The 34-year-old Patel’s impressive run in her maiden Paralympic Games ended with a 7-11 5-11 6-11 loss to Zhou, a two-time gold medallist, in the women’s singles summit clash which lasted 19 minutes. 

Bhavina became only the second Indian female athlete to win a medal in the Paralympics after Deepa Malik, who bagged a silver in shot put F43 in 2016. 

Patel had suffered a loss to Zhou in her first group stage match earlier in the week.

Up against an opponent, who has five Paralympic medals to her name including gold medals in singles at Beijing and London, Patel seemed to struggle as she couldn’t execute her strategy.

Patel, who was diagnosed with polio when she was 12 months old, had defeated world no 3 Miao Zhang of China 7-11 11-7 11-4 9-11 11-8 in the semifinal showdown on Saturday.