Tokyo: Indian athletes - paddler Bhavina Patel (silver), high jumper Nishad Kumar (silver) and discus thrower Vinod Kumar (bronze) on Sunday won three medals for the country at the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics.
The 22-year-old Nishad Kumar made a jump of 2.06m to win the silver medal in the men's high jump T47 event and set an Asian record.
The performance also saw the world No 3 Nishad match his personal best in the event. He had set the Asian record with the same height during the 12th Fazaa International Championships for World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai earlier this year.
He finished at the second spot behind the double Olympic champion from the 2016 Rio Paralympics, Roderick Townsend-Roberts of the US, who made a jumo of 2.15 metres.
Meanwhile, the other Indian in the mix, Ram Pal, finished fifth with a personal best of 1.94 metres.
Vinod Kumar clinched a bronze medal in the discus throw F52 event at the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics, here on Sunday.
Later, Vinod Kumar clinched a bronze medal in the discus throw F52 event.
The Rohtak-born produced a 19.91 metre throw in his fifth attempt - a new Asian record. He broke the previous best of 19.69 metres set by Hossein Khorsandamiri of Iran at the 2018 Asian Para Games.
Poland’s Piotr Kosewicz won the gold medal with a throw of 20.02 metres while Velimir Sandor of Croatia took the silver medal with an effort of 19.98 metres.
Earlier in the day, the 34-year-old Bhavina won the silver medal after going down to world number one Chinese paddler Ying Zhou in the women's singles class 4 final.
With her silver, Bhavani also became the first Indian table tennis player to win a medal at the Paralympics.
Patel is also just the second Indian woman after Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) chief Deepa Malik (silver in shot put in 2016) to clinch a medal at the Paralympics.
In other events of the day, Indian compound archer Jyoti Balyan lost her opening round match of the women’s individual compound - Open event at Tokyo 2020. She suffered a 141-137 loss to Ireland’s Kerrie-Louise Leonard.
In the mixed team event, Jyoti Balyan and Rakesh Kumar registered a comfortable 147-141 win over Thailand's Praphaporn Homjanthuek and Anon Aungaphinan in the Round of 16.
But they lost out in the quarter-finals to Turkey's Oznur Cure and Bulent Korkmaz 153-151. (UNI)
