Yogesh Kathuniya in action© X (formerly Twitter)
India’s Yogesh Kathuniya clinched his second consecutive Paralympic silver medal in men’s discus throw F-56 event with a season’s best effort 42.22m at the ongoing Games in Paris on Monday. The 27-year-old hurled the discus to the podium-clinching distance in his very first attempt to add to the silver he won in the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago. Brazil’s Claudiney Batista dos Santos registered a hat-trick of Paralympic gold medals, creating a new 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 classification covers limb deficiency, leg length difference, impaired muscle power and impaired range of movement.
At the age of 9, Kathuniya developed the Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare autoimmune condition which causes numbness, tingling and muscle weakness that can progress to paralysis.
He was bound to the wheelchair during his childhood but overcame the odds with the help of his mother Meena Devi, who learnt physiotherapy to help him regain muscle strength to walk again. His father has served in the Indian Army.
Kathuniya is a commerce graduate from Delhi’s prestigious Kirori Mal College.
Besides two Paralympic silver medals, he has three world championship medals, including two silver and a bronze.
On Monday, Kathuniya won’t be satisfied with his performance given that he won the silver in Tokyo with a much better effort of 44.38m.
Kathuniya’s toughest competitor, the 45-year-old Dos Santos broke the Paralympic record twice on Monday, 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 also held the Paralympic record of 45.59m in this category which he achieved in the last edition in Tokyo.
Slovakia’s Dusan Laczko finished fourth and last with a best effort of 41.20m.
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