World Para-Games: Sharad claims silver, Mariyappan takes bronze

India's celebrated para high-jumpers Sharad Kumar and Mariyappan Thangavelu qualified for next year's Tokyo Paralympics after claiming silver and bronze medal respectively in World Para-Athletics Championships here. Two-time Asian Para Games champion Sharad Kumar cleared bar with season's best effort of 1.83 metres, while Mariyappan, a Rio Paralympic gold-medallist, settled for bronze, also with a season's best performance of 1.80 metres here on Thursday evening. gold went to Sam Grewe, who won top hours with a championship record of 1.86 metres.

Sharad, former world .1, stayed in lead initially clearing bar at 1.67m until 1.83m before Grewe surged ahead with 1.86m to be on top.

"I am disappointed with what I performed today. Considering that I have been living and training in Ukraine for last three years; faced harsh conditions, I should have given a better performance. I need to re-check my schedule, my planning and many or things," Sharad was quoted as saying by Paralympic Committee of India.

"It's been a hard time. I have been playing continuously. w I need a break. I am going on a holiday from here with my friends who have come down to cheer for me from London," said 27-year-old, who has completed his Masters in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

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Mariyappan, who failed to clear 1.83 metres in his last attempt, later admitted that he couldn't perform his best.

"My body didn't open up. I didn't get my best one here. conditions were a little cold in evening. I hope I can do better in Tokyo 2020 and live up to expectations of my coach, Satyanarayana," he said. 

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Also performing in same event was Ramsingh Padhiya, who settled for fifth place with an effort of 1.77 metres. Earlier in day, Lal Vinay Kumar, Asian Para Games bronze-medallist, claimed bronze in men's 400m T44 event, and a Tokyo 2020 spot, finishing in 55.49 seconds. After penultimate day's action, India has nine medals -- two gold, two silver and five bronze -- from Championships. China lead medals tally with 53 medals including 23 gold medals, followed by Brazil (37) and Great Britain (24).           

Meanwhile, seven world records were broken on day, taking total to 44 with one more day still to go. This surpassed London 2017 Worlds mark of 34 world records. "What everyone is talking here is how many young and new players are competing here. Some of athletes were t competing and many were t competing in London 2017. y are all young and showing incredible results," International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons said on record numbers here. "This has been best ever Para Athletics Championships in terms of performance of players," he added. 

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