World Para Athletics Championships 2024: Praveen finishes fourth in High Jump, Preethi qualifies for final

Preethi Pal and Praveen Kumar were the best-performing Indians on the second day of the Para Athletics World Championships, at the Kobe Universiade Memorial Stadium in Kobe, Japan, on Saturday.

Preethi, a double gold medallist at the Indian Open Para Athletics Championships, clocked her personal best of 30.30 seconds, qualifying for the finals of the Women’s 200m T35 while Praveen, the bronze medallist in the last edition of the Games, finished joint-fourth in the T44 Men’s High Jump final.

Praveen and Temurbek Giyazov of Uzbekistan both had a jump of 1.94 metres, with the former having a personal best.

In the other results, Rakshitha Raju finished fifth with a personal best of 5:16.13 in the final of Women’s 1500 m T11 while Unni Renu finished seventh in the Men’s High Jump T64 with a jump of 1.86 metres.

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In the Men’s Javelin throw (F57) and High Jump (T47), India had a forgetful day, with Praveen finishing eighth with a personal best of 42.87 metres in high jump while Shiek Abdul Kadar and Vikran finished 10th and 11th, respectively, int he Javelin throw.

The World Para Athletics Championships, which started on May 17, will continue till May 26, with approximately 1300 athletes competing in several disciplines. This is the 11th edition of the tournament and the first one in East Asia.

India, which had won a record 10 medals in the last edition of the Games, including three gold, four silver and three bronze medals, has failed to win a medal in Japan so far.