2024 World Para Athletics C'ships: Gold it is for Sumit and Mariyappan

The reigning Paralympic Champion Sumit Antil defended his world title in the T64 category of men's javelin throw event while Mariyappan Thangavelu won India's first ever gold medal in high-jump at the ongoing 2024 World Para Athletics Championships at Kobe, Japan.

Mariyappan, the Rio Paralympic champion, has finally added the long-awaited world title into his elite trophy cabinet.

He won the gold medal in the men's high jump (T63 category) with a season best jump of 1.88m.

In doing so, he surpassed the two American favorites, Ezra Frech (1.85m) and Sam Grewe (1.82m) to claim this world title and also broke the championship record.

The other two Indian jumpers Varun Bhati and Ramsinghbai Padiyar finished on 4th and 7th place respectively.

Varun Bhati missed out on the medal but secured his Paris Paralympics Quota after a jump of 1.78m.

India will now have full three quota spots in this category at the Paris Games as Mariyappan and Shailesh Kumar already secured the quota spot last year.

Sumit Antil defends his title

India's star para-javelin thrower, Sumit Antil added another feat to his cap as he defended his world title in men's javelin throw F64 category with a massive throw of 69.50m on his second attempt.

He again showcased his great prowess as five of his six throws were above the 65m mark. Despite being unable to breach the 70m mark, which he was consistently achieving last year, this performance is a show of confidence before the Paris Paralympics.

Meanwhile, Sandeep Chaudhary won Bronze medal (60.41m) and also clinched the Paris Paralympics quota, in an all-South Asian podium finish along with Sri Lankan Dulan Kodithuwakku (66.49m).

India will now have all three quota spots in this category as well because alongside Sumit and Sandeep, the final Indian participant, Sandip Sanjay Sagar also claimed the Paris Olympics quota despite finishing on the 5th position in the final today.

On the other hand, Bhavikkumar Bharwad could not finish his race in men's 400m T37 heat-1 as he pulled up with a an apparent hamstring injury at halfway stage in what was a heartbreaking end to his campaign.

After day-4, India has now taken its medal count to double digits with 4 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze. This showing is the best ever medal tally for India with almost half of the events still to be played.

India is currently on the third position in the medal-table behind China and Brazil.