World Para Athletics Championships: Mariyappan Thangavelu wins gold in high jump

Tokyo Paralympics silver winner Mariyappan Thangavelu on Tuesday (May 21) clinched a gold in T63 high jump with a championship record of 1.88m at the World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan.

This is his first gold in a major event in eight years.

Twenty eight-year-old Mariyappan won gold in T42 high jump in the 2016 Rio Paralympics and a silver in the Tokyo edition in 2021 in T63. He also won a silver in the T63 class in the Hangzhou Para Asian Games last year.

The T63 classification is for athletes with single through knee or above knee limb deficiency competing with a prosthesis.

Americans Ezra Frech and Sam Grewe won silver and bronze with jumps of 1.85m and 1.82m respectively.

Hailing from Salem district in Tamil Nadu, Mariyappan was raised by his daily wage labourer mother who also sells vegetables after his father abandoned the family.

At the age of five, Mariyappan suffered permanent disability in his right leg when he was run over by a drunk bus driver while walking to school. Before taking up sport, he used to do the job of a newspaper hawker and work at construction sites to help his mother run the family.

Tamil Nadu Industries Minister DRP Raja congratulated the athlete in a message on X.

“Our Mariappan Thangavelu has won gold in the men’s high jump competition at the World Para Athletics Championship in Kobe, Japan. Congratulations and congratulations,” he posted.

India in third place at event

Reigning Paralympics champion Sumit Antil also defended his F64 javelin throw world title while Ekta Bhyan grabbed a gold medal with a season's best throw of 20.12m in the women' F51 club throw competition as India jumped to third place at the event.

With five medals won on a productive fifth day, India's tally swelled to 10 (4 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze) and the country is currently placed below China (15 gold, 13 silver, 13 bronze) and Brazil (14 gold, 6 silver, 5 bronze).