India's Vinod Kumar won bronze in the men's F -51/52 discus throw at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics on Sunday, with an Asian record throw of 19.91m. Poland's Piotr Kosewicz won gold with 20.02m while Croatia's Velimir Sandor took silver with a throw of 19.98m. However, Vinod's result has been put on hold. India's Chef de Mission Gursharan Singh told PTI that Vinod's medal stands for now.
Vinod threw 17.46m, 18.32m, and 17.80m in his first three throws. He cleared the 19m mark with a 19.12m throw and followed it up with 19.9m and 19.81m throws.
Vinod hails from a family of army men. He had joined BSF after completing his education. But during the training period, he fell off a cliff in Leh in 2002. It led to severe leg injuries, and he was bed-ridden for nearly 10 years.
He came to know about para-sport during the 2016 Rio Paralympics and visited the SAI Rohtak centre, where he started training under local coaches. He won bronze medals at the 2017 and 2018 Para Athletics Nationals in the F53 category. And in 2019, Vinod made his international debut at the Handisport Open GP in Paris, where he was classified in the F52 category. That year, he finished fourth in the Para Athletics Worlds in Dubai and secured a quota place for India at the Tokyo Paralympics.
Earlier on Sunday, Nishad Kumar equalled his won Asian record to win silver in men's T46/47 high jump and Bhavinaben Patel won silver after losing her table tennis final to Zhou Ying of China.
India now has three medals at the Paralympics.
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