Paris Paralympics 2024: Praveen Kumar Wins Gold Medal in Men’s High Jump T64 Event – News18

India’s Praveen Kumar won the gold medal of the men’s high jump T64 event at the ongoing Paris Paralympics 2024 on Friday. This is Praveen’s second straight medal at the Paralympics having earlier won a silver in the Tokyo Games.

Also Read: Paris Paralympics 2024 Blog

Praveen took the top spot with an area record of 2.08m to seal India’s sixth gold medal in Paris. USA’s Derek Loccident took silver with a best effort of 2.06m while Uzbekistan’s Temurbek Giyazov clinched bronze with a jump of 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, under which Praveen is categorised, is for athletes with movement affected at a low or moderate degree in one lower leg.

His 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 Thagavelu to secure a medal in Paris.

He was the youngest para-athlete to win a medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics where he recorded an impressive jump of 2.07m.

Praveen, born with a short leg, initially started playing volleyball before shifting focus to high jump. And it turned out to be a pivotal decision as he went on to win a gold medal at the Asian Para Games 2022, breaking the Asian record with a jump of 2.05 meters.

His rich haul of medals from international competitions include silver medal from the World Para Athletics Junior Championship in 2019 held in Nottwil, Switzerland, and a gold medal with an Asian record from the World Para Athletics FAZZA Grand Prix in 2021 in Dubai.

At the World Para Athletics Championship 2023, he won bronze to punch his ticket for the Paris Paralympics.

With this, India’s medal count from the Paris Paralympics is risen to 26 including six gold, 9 silver and 11 bronze so far and jumped to the 14th spot in the standings.

With PTI Inputs