On Tuesday, september 3, in the Men's High Jump - T63 Final, India's Sharad Kumar took home the silver medal and Mariyappan Thangavelu the bronze. Sharad beat the previous record established by his compatriot Mariyappan in the tokyo Games and set a paralympic record in the T42 category with the greatest leap of 1.88 meters. With a best leap of 1.85 meters, Mariyappan, who had won silver at the games in tokyo, had to settle for bronze this time.
 
The third indian competitor, Shailesh Kumar, ended with a personal best of 1.85 m, but as he had crossed the mark on his second try, he was not awarded a medal. The indian trio's day began with them failing to hit the bar at 1.67 meters on their first try. Mariyappan and Sharad also made the decision not to try the following 1.72 m attempt. After Mariyappan and Sharad joined in at 1.77 meters, Shailesh Kumar recorded the second try at 1.72 meters.
 
The competition began to shorten as the bar continued to rise, and all three men went on to easily cross the 1.77 and 1.81 marks. While the rest of the field needed many tries to reach the 1.85 m mark, Mariyappan cleared it on his first try. But at this point, USA's Ezra Frech gained momentum and outran the rest of the field, smashing the Paralympic record for the T 63 category with a 1.88 m leap. When Mariyappan and Shailesh stumbled at 1.88 m, Sharad would follow suit.
 
Sharad and Frech ended up in a shootout, with the American easily clearing the 1.91 and 1.94 meters and aiming to surpass his own world record, which he set in July 2024. Sharad ultimately had to settle for silver since his efforts were insufficient. Frech made every effort to get above 1.98 meters, but in the end, his best effort of 1.94 meters was sufficient to win.
 
High Jump T 63 Final results:
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G GOWTHAM

04/09/2024 08:03 AM