18-year-old Praveen wins silver, becomes youngest Indian to win a medal at Paralympics

Tokyo: It's raining medals for India at the 2020 Paralympics. Having already entered the double-digit figure for the first time since the tournament's inception, India added another medal to its tally as Praveen Kumar bagged a silver medal in Men's High Jump T64 event. 

Praveen cleared 1.83 meters in his first attempt before giving the 1.93 meters attempt a pass. He then returned for the second attempt and cleared the distance of 1.97 meters, to be placed joint top with Briant's Jonathan Edwards and Poland's Maciej Lepiato. 

All three then cleared the 2.01 meters mark, giving each other the closest competition possible for the top podium spot.

Praveen then went into a tie-breaking jump with the Polish para-athlete and efficiently cleared a distance of 2.04 meters. Lepiato also cleared the distance, going joint top with Praveen. Britain's Jonathan also successfully cleared the 2.04 meters mark to produced a neck-to-neck fight for gold.

Lapiato then attempted to clear the distance of 2.07 meters but couldn't succeed. Coming in second for the attempt, Praveen failed to produce such a leap too. With Jonathan also failing to produce the leap, all three athletes failed in their respective first attempts.

In his second attempt to clear the 2.07 meters mark, Pravin produced the required leap and registered a clean jump, also breaking the Asian record and registering his personal best. While Lapiato couldn't clear the distance even in his third attempt, Jonathan matched Praveen's attempt to make it a 2-way battle for the gold.

Going for the distance of 2.10 meters, both Jonathan and Praveen failed to produce a clear leap in the first attempt. Jonathan cleared the distance in the second attempt, putting pressure on Praveen. 

The Indian couldn't succeed in clearing the distance in the following two attempts, hence settling for a silver.

Praveen had earlier smashed the Asian record at the 12th Fazza International World Para Athletics Grand Prix, winning the gold medal. He had produced a jump of 2.05 meters in the Men's High Jump F42/44/64 event.