Kumar Bahukhandi
The 27-year-old Yogesh Kathuniya hurled the discus to 42.22m in his very first attempt to add to the silver he won in the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago. His medal is India’s eighth in the Paris Paralympics.
Paris: Ace Indian discus thrower Yogesh Kathuniya bagged his second consecutive silver at the Paralympics, thanks to his season’s best throw in Paris on Monday September 2 in the men’s F56 event. He hurled the discus to 42.22m in his very first attempt to add to the silver he won in the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago. His medal is India’s eighth in the Paris Paralympics.
Brazil’s Claudiney Batista dos Santos registered a hat-trick of Paralympic gold medals, creating a new Paralympic Games record with an effort of 46.86m in his fifth attempt.
Greece’s Konstantinos Tzounis won the bronze with 41.32m. The F-56 is a seating field event class for differently-abled athletes.
At the tender age of nine, Kathuniya developed Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which is a rapid-onset muscle weakness caused by the immune system that damages the peripheral nervous system.
Kathuniya’s mother learnt physiotherapy and by the time he was 12 years old, he regained enough muscle strength to walk again.
Six years back, Kathuniya set a world record in the F36 category by registering 45.18m at the 2018 World Para Athletics European Championships.
Besides two Paralympic medals, Kathuniya also has three World Championship medals, two silver and one bronze.
Kathuniya though won the silver in Tokyo with a much better effort than Paris, of 44.38m. More so because Dos Santos broke the Paralympic record twice, first registering 46.45m in his second attempt and then hurling the discus to 46.86m in his penultimate throw.
Dos Santos is a three-time world championships gold-medallist and has held the Paralympic record of 45.59m in this category which he achieved in the last edition in Tokyo as well.
Slovakia’s Dusan Laczko finished fourth and last with a best effort of 41.20m.
