Paris 2024 Paralympics: Nishad Kumar wins silver medal in high jump but feels the pinch of falling short of gold

India’s Nishad Kumar was left emotionally overwhelmed after falling short of gold and settling for the silver medal in the men’s high jump T47 class at the Paris 2024 Paralympics on Sunday.

The 24-year-old Indian para-athlete soared to a height of 2.04m in the final, losing the gold medal to the USA’s Roderick Townsend. This was Nishad Kumar’s second Paralympic medal. He won the silver medal at Tokyo 2020 with a clearance of 2.06m to behind Townsend back then as well.

Roderick, who won the gold medal at Tokyo 2020 with the then-world record of 2.15m, had the best clearance of 2.08m on Saturday at the Stade de France. It was enough for him to win his third straight gold medal in the T47 high jump event at the Paralympics.

Neutral para athlete Georgii Margiev settled for bronze with a jump of 2.00m.

The T47 class is meant for athletes with a unilateral upper limb impairment resulting in some loss of function at the shoulder, elbow, and wrist.

The final seemed a two-way contest right from the start with Nishad, the reigning Para Asian Games champion and Roderick bettering each other’s mark. Nishad's first failure to clear the height came at 2.08m. Townsend, leading with 2.06m, cleared the 2.08m mark on his second attempt.

After his third unsuccessful attempt, Nishad slumped into the foam, devastated by the missed opportunity to upgrade his Tokyo medal. Townsend offered a few comforting words, trying to console him.

"Last Tuesday, I cleared 2.10m in practice, and today I stopped at 2.04. So I am disappointed," Nishad said.

"I have been losing to (Townsend) in Tokyo (2020 Paralympics), in World Championships and here at another Olympics, so the silver is not giving me so much joy but pinching at me.

"I was so confident, because in training I was consistently doing 2.07, 2.08... Of course I'm disappointed, but God knows why this couldn't happen today."

This was India’s seventh medal at the Paris 2024 Paralympics and third in athletics. Preethi Pal won bronze medals in the 100m and 200m T35 class events.

The other four medals for India were won in para shooting. Avani Lekhara and Mona Agarwal won gold and bronze, respectively, in the 10m air rifle shooting standing in SH1 class. Manish Narwal (men's 10m air pistol SH1) and Rubina Francis (women's 10m air pistol SH1) won silver and bronze, respectively.