India’s Praveen Kumar dazzled with a record-breaking performance in the
men’s high jump T64 event, adding a Paralympic gold to his Tokyo Games silver here on Friday.

The 21-year-old from Noida, who was born with a short leg, smashed the Asian record with a best jump of 2.08m in the six-men field to finish on top of the podium.

Derek Loccident of the US claimed the silver with a jump of 2.06m, while Uzbekistan’s Temurbek Giyazov, who notched a personal best 2.03m, finished third.

India jumped to the 14th spot in the pecking order after Praveen’s win.

The country has so far won six gold, nine silver and 11 bronze medals to achieve its best-ever haul at a single edition of the Paralympic Games.

At the Tokyo Paralympics, India had won five gold, six silver and eight bronze medals.

Opting to start from 1.89m, Praveen aced seven jumps in his first attempt to put himself in pole position to grab the coveted gold medal.

The bar was then raised to 2.10m, with both Praveen and Loccident fighting for the top spot on the podium but failed to clear the mark.

T64 is for athletes with movement moderately affected in one lower leg or the absence of one or both legs below the knee.

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

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.

Harvinder’s target

Having successfully won gold at Paris Paralympics, India’s star archer Harvinder Singh’s next target is to complete his PhD.

“I was active in studies until 2018. I would study in the morning and practice in the evening... I got busier in sports after I got the gold in Asian Para Games in 2018 and because of all of that, my PhD got delayed...

“I am doing PhD in economics from the Punjab University in Patiala... I hope to finish my PhD in the next few months,” Harvinder said.