With an Asian record throw of 19.91m, debutant Vindo Kumar bagged the bronze medal men's Discus Throw F52 final at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics on Sunday.
His 19.91m throw, which is also now his personal best, came in his fifth attempt at the final. Poland's Piotr Kosewicz finished top of the podium with a throw of 20.02m followed by Croatia's Velimir Sandor who finished second with a throw of 19.98m.
The F52 classification is for athletes with impaired muscle power, restricted range of movement, limb deficiency or leg length difference, with athletes competing in seated position. It also applies to cervical cord injury, spinal cord injury, amputation, and functional disorder.
This was India's third medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics after Bhavinaben Patel scripted history to become the nation's first medalist in Table Tennis, while Nishad Kumar secured a silver in the men's high jump T47 event with a jump of 2.06m.
With three medals, India are now one short of equalling their best-ever tally at a Paralympics. India had bagged four medals at the 2016 Rio Games.
Vinod, who suffered an injury seven months after joining the Border Security Force which resulted in a life-long paralysis, had only begun playing the sport in 2016 after watching 2016 medallist Deepa Malik, the present head of Paralympic Committee of India (PCI). At the World Para Athletes Grand Prix in 2019, Vindo clinched his first medal in the discus throw with a bronze. Two months later, at the Dubai World Championships, he finished fourth, but the throw of 19.29m was enough to book his place in the Tokyo Games.
Earlier this year, he had also contracted the dreaded coronavirus which took him almost a month to recover. But the 41-year-old bounced back strong to clinch the gold in the Nationals.
