Tokyo Paralympics: Praveen Kumar bags silver in High Jump, Avani Lekhara claims yet another medal

India is having a dream run in Tokyo Paralympics. They have already breached the double-figure mark, their best performance till date and it seems there are a few more to come. Friday was another brilliant day for India as Praveen Kumar and Avani Lekhara won medals in High Jump and shooting respectively.

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Praveen opened India’s account today with a silver in High Jump T64. He cleared 1.83m in his first attempt but passed 1.93m attempt. He returned to clear 1.97m which put him on par with Britain's Jonathan Edwards and Poland’s Maciej Lepiato at the top. The trio then cleared 2.01m which set up a tight fight for the gold.

Praveen then went into a tie breaker with Lepiato and Edwards and cleared the mark of 2.04m. The other two contenders also cleared the mark with ease. The tie breaker went on till 2.10m which Praveen failed to clear and settled for Silver.

Hours later, Avani Lekhara claimed her second medal, winning bronze in the women’s 50m Rifle 3 position (SH1) event. She had earlier claimed a podium finish in the women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing (SH1) event.

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The medal also made Avani the first woman to win two medals in Paralympics. Avani was struggling after six series, being placed at sixth but she made a grand comeback to finish third. She also became only the fourth Indian after Joginder Singh Bedi, Mariyappan Thangavelu and Devendra Jhajharia to win multiple medals at the Paralympics. India has now won a total of 12 medals - 6 silver, 4 bronze and 2 gold medals and is ranked 36th in the medals tally.