Paris Paralympics 2024: Sharad wins silver, Mariyappan clinches bronze in men’s high jump T63 event

Sharad Kumar won a silver medal while Mariyappan Thangavelu took bronze in the men’s high jump T63 event at Paris 2024 Paralympics on Tuesday.

Sharad also broke Mariyappan’s Paralympic Record in the T42 category. He cleared the bar set at 1.88m on his second attempt to go past Mariyappan’s mark of 1.86m from Tokyo 2020. In the process, Sharad also clinched his second straight Paralympic medal after the bronze at the previous edition.

However, Sharad failed to clear 1.91m. He then raised the bar to 1.94m and had two more failed attempts. USA’s Ezra Frech, the world record-holder in T63 category, won the gold medal with a new Paralympic Record of 1.94m.

Mariyappan, who won gold in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and silver in Tokyo, could only clear the bar till 1.85m before three failed attempts at 1.88m.

Shailesh Kumar, the third Indian in the fray, was tied with Mariyappan but finished fourth on countback.

The two medals in high jump took India’s tally to 20, its best-ever at a single edition of the Games.

India has won three golds, seven silvers and 10 bronze medals so far in Paris.